Hiring in Saudi Arabia Requirements
Hiring for Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is revered by Muslims all over the world being the birthplace of Islam and also due to the presence of the Holy Khana Kabah. Millions of Muslims gather there to perform Hajj every year.
These are mostly the workers from Pakistan, being employed in the two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Madinah, cater to pilgrims from all over the world, throughout the year.
KSA ranks second in the world by having one-fifth of the world’s known oil reserves. Saudi Aramco is one of the most profitable companies in the world and the world’s largest oil producer. A large number of Pakistani workers are deployed in all of the Saudi Arabian Oil Industries.
If you want to hire foreign talent for Saudi Arabia from Pakistan, here are some of the requirements you should keep in mind before initiating the process.
Basic Criteria for the Employee
- Candidate minimum age should be 21 years.
- He should have a valid National ID Card.
- His passport must be computerized.
- Candidate must have Valid passport (at least 7 Months validity.)
- He must possess a fully vaccination certificate.
- He must be medically fit as per GCC Criteria.
- Must have attested degree from Saudi culture and Embassy if he is engineer.
- In case the Candidate has been to Saudi Arabia previously, he must have Exit Paper/Khurooj E Nahe.
- If candidate is going for Htv Driver he must have valid license.
- Medical Examination: Contract will come into force, upon the Employee’s successfully passing the medical examination maintained by a physician appointed by the Employer. The Employer may on his absolute discretion, subject the Employee to a medical examination at any time within the Contract validity period.
Required Documents from the Candidate:
- Passport and Visa.
- All educational documents.
- All experience documents.
- Signed Job offer Letter.
- Copy of Contract / Agreement.
- Medical report copy.
- Original degree in case of Engineer.
- Original Diploma certificate if he is technician.
- 15 Passport size pictures in blue background.
- If candidate is skilled worker he will bring original trade test report.
Task (Work) Fulfillment:
The Employee is to perform his assigned work in accordance with professional practices and as per the instructions of the Employer if such instructions are not contradicting the Contract, regulation or general ethics and its execution shall not subject him to any risk; to sufficiently take care of the equipment and tasks assigned to him, raw materials owned by the Employer under his disposal or may be under his custody and to return to the Employer non-consumable materials; to provide every assistance without conditional extra payment in the event of risks which threaten the safety of work place or working personnel. The Employee shall comply with good conduct and ethics during the work. At all times he shall comply with regulations, traditions, customs and ethics adopted in KSA as well as rules, regulations and instructions applicable by the Employer. He shall also bear all financial penalties resulted from such regulations breach.
Taxes and Contributions: The Employee shall bear the costs of any Contributions and Taxes which he is liable under the provision of the Saudi Laws.
Confidential Information: During his service with the Employer and within two years after his termination, the Employee shall treat all of Employer’s confidential information in trust and in confidence, and will exercise with respect thereto the highest degree of care and control as would be expected of a prudent individual. The Employee is prohibited from revealing any such information to any third Party.
Basic Criteria for the Employer
Basic Policies
The first thing you need to document for your overseas employees is the Agreement/Contract, Basic Employment Policy such as your employee’s working hours, leave and termination, traveling allowance, etc. Here are the details of these points:
Agreement / Contract:
The employer will send job offer letter mentioning Basic Salary / all the terms and conditions to the selected candidate and if he agrees the offer he will accept and send the signed contract back. Then the proceeding of Visa endorsement starts.
Working hours & Weekends:
A standard workday in KSA is eight hours which amount to 48 hours per week i.e. eight hours per day, 6 days a week. Some companies require working five days and some six days a week. Companies are advised to pay overtime of 150 percent of the regular salary beyond 48 hours. Friday is a holiday and any required work on Friday falls under the overtime category.
During the month of Ramazan the work hours are reduced from eight hours to six hours per day.
The 48 hours can be distributed by one or two shifts maximum. Moreover, the if the employee holds a supervisory position, he might be required to work additional hours in accordance with the Saudi Labor Law.
On Fridays, the employee is eligible to work within his day off as per job requirement. The Employer shall replace the weekly day off with another day of the week subject to a prior notice to the Employee and the concerned Labor Office. Overtime is also an option as discussed earlier.
Salary, Allowances and Other Benefits:
Basic salary: The Employer shall pay to the Employee during the Term of this Contract, a monthly basic salary in SAR as agreed upon the start of the contract.
Annual Leave: The Employee shall annually be entitled to a paid annual leave of (30) calendar days. The Employer shall determine its date during the entitlement year in accordance with work conditions provided that the annual leave salary shall be paid in advance when entitled. The Employee and the Employer may delay the leave after the end of its entitlement year for a period not exceeding (90) days.
Official Holidays: The Employee shall be eligible for the official’s holidays in accordance with the Saudi Labor Law:
• 4 days in Eid-ul-Fitr
• 4 days in Eid-ul-Adha
• 1 day for National day.
Housing Allowance (applicable in case of family status:) The Employer shall pay 25% of basic salary monthly as Housing Allowance in cash. Subject to two months prior notice, the employer can replace the said allowance by a suitable accommodation.
Normally the company provides housing and transportation to a non family status employee.
Transportation Allowance (applicable in case of family status:) The Employer shall pay the Employee a transportation allowance of SAR 650 per month in cash. Subject of one month prior notice, the Employer can provide a suitable transport instead of the said allowance.
Associated Fees: The Employer shall bear the fees of Employee recruitment / the transfer of his services to him, residence card charges, work permit and their renewal as well as the resulted penalties of delay, fees of profession change, reentry visa fees, return ticket of the Employee to his country he came with after the end of the relationship between the two parties.
In case of Death: In case of Employee’s death, all costs related to processing and transporting Employee’s dead body to the place where the Contract was concluded and the worker recruited from, will be borne by the Employer unless to be buried with the consent of his family inside the Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.
Air Tickets (applicable in case of family status:) Cost of one-way air ticket from the Point of Origin at the time of joining the Company for him and his family is to be borne by the Employee (Applicable to new hires only)
One economy class Air ticket (round trip) for him, his wife and up to 2 kids (under 18 years) if the employee is re-contracted. Or one economy class air ticket (one-way) for him and his dependents on completion of contract to his country of origin. Or fixed amount as decided and approved by Company to be paid in cash as cost of air tickets at the end of contract period, whichever way decided by the Company.
The employee shall not be entitled for such air tickets unless he is actually travelling to his point of origin. The Employee if decides to stay in the Kingdom and not travelling during his vacation; he shall lose his rights to such tickets or any reimbursement.
Education Allowance (applicable in case of family status:) The Employer shall pay the employee 50% of the actual tuition fees only, that he paid for his (2) children enrolled in schools within KSA, against a receipt from the school/schools in this regard, stipulated that such payment shall commence as from first elementary grade, whose ages do not exceed (18) eighteen years subject to a condition that such participation for all children shall not exceed SAR 20,000 (Saudi Riyals Twenty Thousand) per annum. The Employer shall not be liable to pay any transportation to the children to or from the schools or bear any other costs.
Insurance: The Employer shall comply to register the Employee at General Organization of Social Insurance (GOSI) and to pay its subscriptions as per its regulations.
All payments & entitlements of the Employee under this Contract shall be paid through wire transfer to the Employee’s bank account in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; unless there are practical and legal reasons of exceptional nature, duly considered by the Employer, requiring such payments to be in cash or through bank account out of the Kingdom. In any cases, all is to be paid before the end of each Gregorian month during the Employee service with the Employer.
End of service Award: The Employee shall be entitled, upon the termination of this Contract by the Employer; by agreement of the Parties; upon the expiry of the Contract period or as result of force majeure, to a severance payment of fifteen days (15) salary for each year of the initial five years (5) and one month (1) salary for each year of the following years. The Employee shall be entitled to severance payment for the parts of the year in proportion to the time spent in work. The severance payment shall be calculated on the last salary basis.
It shall be calculated on the basis of the real effective salary without including the variable amounts (Commissions; bonus and other variable payments in cash or alike).
Saudization Program
Saudization is a program that incentivizes hiring Saudi nationals over international workers.
If you are a private company with five or more employees this program requires 25 percent of communications and IT staff positions to go to Saudi nationals.
You may also want to visit these pages related to Saudi Arabia Hiring:
Kashmir Overseas Saudi Arabia Profile and the Clients served