Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has made several remarkable achievements in the recruitment sector during the first half of 2024. This is mainly through the Musaned, the ministry’s official platform for household services and home employment program, which came into being in 2016.

The Musaned platform has been instrumental in concluding as many as 412,399 domestic labor recruitment contracts, and it has added a number of new countries for recruitment such as Gambia, Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania. The number of countries available for recruitment has reached 33 countries at present.

The platform provides the transfer of labor services from one individual to another one and this service has benefited more than 61,358 employers. The platform seeks to preserve the rights of all parties concerned by creating a unified electronic contract that guarantees the rights of domestic workers and beneficiaries, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The platform has registered more than 907 accredited recruitment offices in various regions of the Kingdom while the number of active offices abroad reached 8,286 offices. There has been a decrease in the average duration of domestic workers’ arrival by 11 percent. More than 583,691 CVs of domestic workers were uploaded via the Musaned platform, while the beneficiary satisfaction rate reached 92 percent of the platform’s services.

During the first half of 2024, the ministry enhanced Musaned with a set of key services and improvements to enhance efficiency and improve user experience. These improvements began with adding new channels to transfer domestic workers’ salaries through the Musaned platform, using several new channels such as Alinma Pay, Enjaz Wallet, and Mobily Pay, in addition to the previously approved options such as STC Pay and Your Pay.

The ministry launched Domestic Worker Contract Insurance for new domestic workers coming for the first time to the employer through the Musaned platform. More than 358,980 beneficiaries took advantage of this insurance during the first half of this year. This step comes as a continuation of previous successes, which contributes to protecting all parties to the contractual relationship.

It is noteworthy that the ministry continues its pioneering steps towards developing the domestic labor recruitment sector through the Musaned platform, which has proven its worth as one of the key national initiatives in the Kingdom. The platform was established with the aim of facilitating and documenting the recruitment process, and preserving the rights of the parties concerned, employers and domestic workers.

The ministry also launched the unified channel for submitting complaints, which facilitates the process of submitting and processing complaints effectively and transparently, in a way enhancing trust between beneficiaries and the concerned parties. The recruitment office evaluation system was improved to ensure the provision of better and more regular services, as well as reducing the ceiling of recruitment prices for countries with high recruitment rates, such as the Philippines, Uganda, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia; with the aim of providing multiple and appropriate options for employers.

The health insurance service for new domestic workers was also launched to ensure that the workers are provided with appropriate healthcare. Also, humanitarian cases were exempted from the financial fee, which confirms the ministry’s keenness to support people with disabilities. It is noteworthy that the ministry is reviewing labor market regulations, enhancing the quality of the recruitment sector and policies related to the sector, in line with the ministry’s strategy to improve contracts between workers and employers and preserve the rights of all parties.