JEDDAH, 10 August 2007 — Under the Kingdom’s labor law, any company with more than 25 employees is required to open its doors to Saudis for paid summer internship. The idea is part of the country’s overall policy of reducing dependence on foreign labor by training the predominantly young, native population.
But some companies are apparently finding it more economical and convenient to abide by this law by simply sending paychecks to select Saudi interns, rather than going through additional expenses (in paid time spent by full-time employees to train interns) of utilizing paid interns they may not necessarily need but have to take in accordance with the labor law.
“I’ve only set foot in the company to deliver the transfer paper given to me by the Labor Office,” said Abdul Aziz, a Saudi high school student with an excellent academic background who says he is more than happy to earn a paycheck for doing nothing. “The manager told me that I could go home and receive my paychecks at the end of each month. They told me if my attendance was needed I would be called in, but I’ve never been called in.”
Abdul Aziz agreed to talk to Arab News on the condition that his full name and the name of the company are not published. He said that the people at the company for which he ostensibly interns believe it would take all summer to train an intern, and then that intern would leave just as he’s getting into the groove of his job. This, he believes, is a particular issue with smaller companies who may not be able to afford assigning other employees to training young adults with little or no on-the-job work experience.
While the prospect of getting a free paycheck for the summer sounds appealing, some Saudi youths have expressed concern that they are not getting any job training through this scheme.
“I have not benefited whatsoever from my past summer internships under this policy,” said Abdullah Ali, who is in his early 20s. “I would show up at work, sit around all day doing almost nothing besides drinking coffee, chitchatting and reading newspapers. I didn’t learn a thing that would have helped me land a decent job later.”
Khaled Al-Ofi, a Saudi high school summer intern, said his father picked him as an intern because he was afraid that that his son would end up in another internship somewhere simply being paid off rather than engaging in a learning experience.
“My father is my boss,” he said. “He wakes me up at the crack of dawn and he gives me the time and effort to explain how the company operates and the daily process.”
The ultimate goal of the Labor Ministry’s mandatory internship program is to help Saudization, as the long-term government policy of replacing foreign workers with skilled local ones is called. But ever since the Saudization policy began more than a decade ago, companies have always tried to weasel out of hiring under-skilled Saudis. Companies will over-report the percentage of Saudi employees in order to meet their quotas. The quotas vary on the type of industry.
Generally speaking the higher the skill, the lower the percentage of the workers who must be citizens. Saudi job seekers complain of low wages in lower-skilled jobs where they must compete with foreign workers who are willing to take smaller paychecks due to their circumstances back home. Raising salaries, on the other hand, would raises prices for consumer goods and services, which would be an unpopular move.
Sometimes companies forge work documents, too.
Aman Salem, in his 20s, who recently landed his first job with a local company said that when he was processing his paperwork he discovered that his identity had been stolen, most likely from an employer with a forged Saudi payroll.
“When I went to get a social insurance number, I was surprised to find out that I had already gotten one,” he said, laughing. “My record showed that I had been working for a company in the Eastern Province for more than three years.”
Salem says he has never been to the Eastern Province.
“I don’t have the slightest idea on how that company managed to obtain my identification,” he said.
Officials at the Labor Ministry did not return phone calls from Arab News seeking comment.
