Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH – The labor contract with India will encourage other Asian and African countries to enter into bilateral agreements on the recruitment of domestic helpers, said Deputy Minister of Labor Dr. Mufarrej Al-Huqbani in Riyadh on Sunday.



He was addressing the third annual meeting of ambassadors and labor representatives for countries sending workers to the Kingdom. It is organized annually by the Ministry of Labor to acquaint attendees with the ministry’s initiatives and programs to protect the rights of workers and organize the labor market. The meeting was attended by representatives of over 30 countries.



Al-Huqbani said the arrival of Indian workers to the Kingdom is drawing near. This is the evidence of the effectiveness of the bilateral agreement with countries sending workers to the Kingdom.



Saudi Arabia and India signed the bilateral agreement on labor cooperation for domestic workers’ recruitment in New Delhi on Jan.2, 2014. Al-Huqbani said that providing social prosperity and peace of mind for the worker is among the top priorities of the Ministry of Labor. It strove to launch programs and initiatives that protect workers’ rights and provide them with a secure work environment. Most prominent among these is the awareness website for domestic workers’ program (Musanid), which was launched last March with the aim of acquainting workers and employers with their rights and duties.



Indian Deputy Chief of Mission Sibi George said they are working with the Saudi authorities to discuss and implement a Standard Employment Contract. “After the completion of internal procedures the Employment Contract will be made mandatory,” he said. George said the objective of labor agreement is to provide legal protection to all Indian workers in Saudi Arabia.



Ahmad Al-Hemaidan, undersecretary for labor policies, said the ministry guarantees the right of free movement from one sponsor to another for all expatriate workers and under certain cases as long as such action does not disrupt or harm the employer’s business.



Dr. Abdullah Abu Thenain, undersecretary for inspection and work environment development, said the wage protection program will be applied to all companies soon while Dr. Ahmad Al-Fehaid, undersecretary for international affairs, said the agreement will create new aspects of cooperation between the Kingdom and the labor exporting countries.



Ziyad Al-Sayegh, undersecretary for customer relation services, talked about the unified call center set up by the ministry to answer workers’ enquiries in Arabic, English, Ethiopian, Indonesian, Malayalam, Urdu. Tugaloo, and Hindi.



The center helps the workers understand their rights and duties.