RIYADH — Paying unemployment benefits to job-seeking Saudis would be counterproductive and open the possibility for fraud, Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi said during a closed-door Shoura Council session yesterday.
Al-Gosaibi said that unemployment benefits would encourage jobless Saudis to rely on unemployment checks and not seek work. He also said that if the government approved such an initiative it would open the way for fraudsters and those who can cheat the system.
Saudi Arabia currently does not pay unemployment benefits to workers who are dismissed. Saudis are unable to access their social security deductions from the General Organization of Social Insurance until they have completed 10 years of work. Early retirement, on the other hand, is available for citizens working in the public sector.
Much of the session revolved around the issue of Saudization — the government policy of having hiring quotas that makes room for Saudi employees.
According to a Shoura member who wanted to remain anonymous, the minister said he had arrived to the council “depressed” because his ministry was being attacked by local businessmen for trying to raise the Saudization quotas in the private sector.
“They (the businessmen) swore at us, accusing us of cutting off their source of bread and butter when we told them to stop hiring foreigners and employ more Saudis,” the minister was quoted as saying by the Shoura member. “We did not want to be labeled as the ministry that stood against the progress of industrialization in the country.”
The minister reportedly blamed this attitude by employers for the 30 percent increase in foreign recruitments last year. Saudi Arabia’s heavy reliance on foreign manpower has been blamed on various factors, including a lack of work ethics or skills and the willingness of foreign workers to work for far less pay.
The labor laws, too, make it easier to fire foreign workers than Saudis. An estimated third of the population of Saudi Arabia are employed foreigners. At the same time, the government is the largest employer of Saudi nationals.
Al-Gosaibi, on more than one occasion, has blamed Saudi businessmen for not siding with his ministry’s vision to employ Saudis and depend less on cheap foreign labor. Last year, the minister said he had learned of local companies that have a Saudization rate of less than one percent. The Saudization quota varies from industry to industry.
The minister also said the majority of unemployed persons in the Kingdom lack college education. The minister said that 300,000 Saudis registered themselves as unemployed for the purposes of seeking help in finding work.
Official statistics from the ministry have put the unemployment rate among Saudi men at 9 percent and Saudi women at 23.5 percent.
Al-Gosaibi pointed out that it was crucial for undergraduates to be trained in the private sector to later join the labor market in much-needed areas.
Al-Gosaibi reportedly lamented to the Shoura Council the Kingdom’s “shameful culture” that rejects the idea that Saudis should work in blue-collar professions, such as mechanics, street cleaners, plumbers or other hands-on professions.
Several members who spoke to Arab News yesterday said Al-Gosaibi failed to provide the council with concrete measures as to how his ministry intends to combat crucial issues such as unemployment, runaway foreign workers, unskilled workers in the private sector, or how to effectively implement Saudization.
