The decision was taken during a meeting between visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister Dilan Perera and Deputy Labor Minister for Planning and Development Mufarrij bin Saad Al-Hagbani at the headquarters of the Labor Ministry in Riyadh.
Also present at the discussions were Deputy Labor Minister Ahmad bin Saleh Humaidan, Sri Lankan Ambassador Ahmed A. Jawad and former Sri Lankan Ambassador Ibrahim Sahib Ansar, who is currently the country’s envoy in Cairo.
Explaining the proposal, Jawad said the two countries are interested in following a government-to-government scheme that would ensure fair recruitment procedures from Sri Lanka without the direct interference of middlemen.
"At present, we do not have an organized procedure for recruitment. Everyone follows their own system and eventually, the Saudi employer as well as the worker suffers," he said.
Under the proposed scheme, the whole recruitment process will be streamlined under the direct supervision of the two governments.
During the discussions, a social security scheme was proposed to protect both the employer and the employee.
"Such a scheme will offer compensation for a distressed worker who suffers at the hands of an unscrupulous employer, while the employer's investment will also be suitably compensated if a worker runs away from the workplace."
It was revealed during discussions that the Saudi Labor Ministry is currently working out a scheme whereby distressed housemaids could contact the relevant authorities and have their cases resolved quickly.
Perera said such a move would definitely help a maid who is mistreated by an unscrupulous sponsor.
A Saudi employer spends around SR10,000 to recruit a housemaid from Sri Lanka. The sponsor loses the whole investment when the worker runs away from the workplace. A social security scheme will protect a worker and offer him financial aid if he or she is fired by an employer.
The Sri Lankan Embassy handles a daily average of 10 employees who run away from their workplaces in various parts of the Kingdom.
