Salary Below SR15,000 Per Month? Forget Hiring Housemaid or Driver!

In a major move to streamline the recruitment of domestic labor from foreign countries, a top official has said that Saudis and expatriates should be drawing salaries exceeding SR15,000 per month in order to be eligible to recruit housemaids or drivers.

The Head of the Recruitment Committee in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry Yehya Al-Maqboul pointed to the domestic labor exporting countries having laid down requirements for their nationals prior to sending them to work in the Kingdom.

“This condition will ensure the rights of domestic workers in light of rising rents and cost of living. It will also reduce the delays in paying domestics their monthly salaries which will exceed SR2000,” Al-Maqboul said.

He said while small families do not need to hire domestics, the new regulations will also discourage large families from recruiting housemaids and drivers especially since most Saudis have to borrow money to pay their salaries.

“In addition, Saudi families will be spared the high cost of the visa especially for domestic labor from Asian countries such as the Philippines and Sri Lanka,” he added.

Al- Maqboul told Arab News the new regulation requiring recruitment offices to publish the salaries of domestics on the “Saned” website to serve citizens and residents.

He warned that the ministry would seize the electronic authorizations of recruitment companies and offices which don’t comply with the new law. He stressed that this step would generate healthy competition between recruitment companies to provide the best services in line with the Ministry of Labor’s strategic recruitment plan.

The ministry had earlier called on all recruitment offices to publish their domestic workers’ fees on the “Musaned” website for greater transparency and to display the different options. They would also have to disclose the workers’ nationalities and professions as part of the strategic plan.

(Source: JEDDAH: IBRAHIM NAFFEE – Arab News)