Combating fake Saudization

The Ministry of Labor has unveiled a comprehensive project to combat fake employment.
Penalties could reach five years’ imprisonment and fines of up to SR10 million, in addition to preventing violators from recruiting expatriates, seeking loans and transferring sponsorship from business owners.
The project allows citizens to report nationalization violations, either electronically or on the phone, on a toll free number. Reports are verified through inspection visits on violating establishments.
Fake nationalization entails registering Saudis, Gulf citizens or Saudis with foreign fathers with the social insurance scheme to enhance a company’s ranking in the Nitaqat scheme without employing them.
The new list calls on nationals who are not registered with the social insurance scheme to enter their national ID numbers on the website of the General Organization for Social Insurance to ensure that they have not been registered by someone else.
Users are urged to file a report with the ministry if they have been falsely registered.
The ministry will make sure the report is accurate by calling the business owner or his deputy.
During an inspection visit, the types of fake nationalization are ascertained.
Some employers are found to register the names of Saudi or Gulf citizens who do not live in the Kingdom with GOSI without their knowledge, while others agree with Saudi citizens to register their names with the organization or register disabled workers without giving them actual jobs.
Other establishments register women to work in jobs that are mostly male-dominated, while many refrain from amending the data of Saudi employees 15 days after they leave the job.
Some establishments register civil, government or military employees.
Fake Saudization also includes transferring one company’s workers to another company that falls under the same organization in order to amend the establishment local-to-expat hiring ratio and increase nationalization rates.
The list includes a series of legal procedures taken by the ministry if bogus fake nationalization is proved. This includes amending nationalization rates and implementing penalties against business owners.
Penalties stated in resolution 50 passed by the Council of Ministers will also apply to violators.
These include halting recruitment applications, sponsorship transfers and visa renewals for workers and preventing violating businesses from entering government tenders and receiving government aid.