JEDDAH, 7 June 2006 — The new labor law that went into effect recently has offered more rights to working women than ever before. A lawyer has said that one big hurdle for women is their lack of awareness of their rights.
“How can the law help them if women don’t reach out for help?” asked Khaled Abu Rashid, partner at the International House of Law in Jeddah, during an interview with Arab News. He said the first step for women that need legal help is to be more proactive in ensuring their rights.
Abu Rashid says that the International House of Law has received numerous complaints over the years of women who have reported that their husbands have left them without filing for divorce, leaving them in legal straits that can affect their ability to remarry.
The lawyer told Arab News that he has learned that in many cases these women have gone on for years without filing complaints. It is this silence, he says, that ensured that these women do not receive justice.
Abu Rashid speculated that this silence might also be caused by various factors, such as a lack of awareness of their rights, meek personalities, or the social stigma women can face for taking marriage issues to court.
He pointed out that there is no Islamic prohibition to women fighting for their legal rights, but they need to have the discipline to investigate and learn of the rights afforded to them in the legal framework of the Kingdom.
The media, he says, are playing a big role nowadays in educating women, especially through the newspapers and televised legal consultancy phone-in programs.
In reforms that came into effect on April 23, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has implemented new laws to protect women in the workplace. The changes are part of the sweeping new labor law.
For example, women are now protected from being fired on the basis of maternity-related leave. Women get 10 weeks of maternity pay, four weeks before birth and six weeks after. This is additional to the one-month paid vacation afforded to all workers. The law applies to expatriate working women as well.
“Employers have to pay full pregnancy-related health expenses during the pregnancy,” said Abu Rashid.
Those who employ more than 50 women are now also required to have an on-site crèche. Women are also given an hour during the shift to breast-feed.
In the event that employers do not comply with the new laws, women are urged to complain in writing to the nearest branch of the Labor Office.
Abu Rashid says that women do not require lawyers to file these complaints and it costs nothing to file a legal complaint.
The Ministry of Labor has published a new book available to download through Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs website at www.mol.gov.sa/mol_site/forms/download.asp.
