The ministry is in charge of affairs pertaining to government employees, including schoolteachers and engineers working in the public sector.

In the video, the minister tells the young men that he cannot solve their problem on his own since the committee in charge of reviewing their demands has not come to a conclusion for their recommendation. The minister then tells the engineers to stop clustering around  “like women,” to which the engineers responded in kind.

One of them yells: “We are not women, watch your word!” The group is now circulating on the Internet their demand for an apology. The incident has sparked criticism from newspaper columnists.

“What's wrong with women, anyway?” wrote Al-Hayat newspaper columnist Badriya Al-Bishr, who pointed out that women had recently gathered politely at the ministry's entrance. “If that is considered women’s attitude, what should men do? Should they hold sticks?”

The teachers, who teach adult women, had gathered to demand they be included in a recent royal decree which says that all part-time public sector employees be made full-time.

Khalaf Al-Harbi, a widely read Saudi columnist at Okaz newspaper, said the minister's crass behavior included calling on one of the engineers to tear up the letter with the demands.

The minister defended himself by saying that the engineers were speaking in an unorganized manner, which made it difficult to understand them. He added that they explained to three representatives of the engineers that their demands have been considered.