JEDDAH, 18 July 2005 — Ahmad Al-Zamil, deputy minister for labor affairs, announced that the Labor Ministry will publish job opportunities available in private companies in the local media in order to help Saudis apply for jobs that are suitable for them.
He also said, during a press conference in Riyadh yesterday, that the ministry had suspended the computer numbers of some 1,000 companies and establishments at the Passports Department for violating Saudization rules.
“We’ll announce the results of the Saudization campaign every week,” the minister told reporters.
The ministry had received applications from more than 155,000 job-seekers during the previous campaign and found employment for 35,000 applicants, he pointed out.
“The ministry was expecting to provide employment for about half of the total applicants within six months but many of the job-seekers failed to turn up at labor offices to complete employment formalities,” he said. There are 37 labor offices across the country.
He insisted that the ministry would not give approval for foreign recruitment to any company until it fulfills Saudization conditions.
Al-Zamil commended the cooperation of many private companies in employing Saudis. “I have seen some companies and businessmen looking for young Saudis to employ them,” he said.
Saudi job-seekers in various regions have been advised to accept jobs wherever available. The ministry had found jobs for 11,000 Saudis from Jizan outside the region.
Al-Zamil denied reports that the Kingdom had stopped recruiting Indonesian housemaids. “We have not stopped issuing visas to Indonesia. But Jakarta has stopped sending its workers to the Kingdom,” he pointed out.
He said some 65,000 visa applications have been transferred from Indonesia to Sri Lanka and other countries after Jakarta’s action.
“A committee is contacting Indonesian authorities to review its conditions regarding a salary hike and one-day holiday for its workers,” Al-Zamil said, adding that Indonesian authorities had agreed to send their workers to the Kingdom.
Asked about Sri Lankan plans to unify salaries of their maidservants in the Middle East, Al-Zamil said he had not received any official information in this respect. “Saudi Arabia is an open market where workers are recruited considering their skills and based on the agreement between both parties on salary and other benefits,” he pointed out.
