JEDDAH, 28 April 2004 — Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi yesterday ruled out separate salary scales for Saudis and expatriates which some have proposed. He said it would amount to discrimination.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with the governor of the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training, Gosaibi called for drastic measures to end the Kingdom’s unemployment problem.
“The present job market situation in the Kingdom does not allow us to set a minimum wage because of the large number of expatriates here. If we have two salary scales, one for expatriates and one for Saudis, we’ll be guilty of discrimination which would be most unwelcome,” he said.
Gosaibi, a former Saudi ambassador to Britain who was sworn in as labor minister last week, said countries which had implemented a minimum wage had been confronted with many problems including the emergence of black markets for labor.
He said his ministry would take punitive action against companies which put the names of Saudis on the payroll without actually employing them. “The companies will not be allowed to recruit foreign manpower in the future,” he added.
The minister disclosed plans to train 200,000 Saudis within the next two to three years as part of its efforts to fight unemployment. “We cannot fight unemployment by quick or simple measures. We should have a set of regulations to deal with various aspects of unemployment,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying.
Gosaibi emphasized the need to reduce the number of expatriate workers, currently estimated at seven million, in order to provide jobs for Saudis. “We must also work with the private sector and conduct training courses in order to create more job opportunities for Saudis,” he said, urging young Saudis to specialize in areas required by the job market.
