First of all, I would like to share a letter from a reader:

“If you have time and the inclination could you address the topic of how fundamentally unjust it is when employers refuse to transfer the services of a good employee who has successfully completed his or her contract. Saudis are allowed to change jobs and better their prospects in life at will.

“However, expats are trapped in a system that gives any first employer the ability to block a worker from changing jobs to a second employer who wants his services even after the employee has fully completed the terms of his contract. This traps people and prevents them from being able to better their lot in life. Such abusive power exercised by some employers harkens back to the days when workers were exploited...

“We, the millions of expats toiling in this country need a voice so our cries for justice and fairness are heard by the majority of good Saudis who know nothing of this terrible problem faced by expats. These are not simply the whining and complaining of foreigners who want to take advantage of Saudi society, but rather expats who have lived and worked here sometimes for many years that have grown to love this country that they have helped to build.”

I excerpt this individual’s letter because he can more eloquently state the case of expats than I can. Even though I am a Saudi, I also have been touched by the inherent unfairness of the laws that govern expats’ relationship with their employers.

When my foreign husband came to Saudi Arabia, he worked under a Saudi sponsorship.

The salary was good, but the work conditions were less than ideal. It never occurred to him to transfer to another job simply because of the red tape involved. He had also witnessed at least a half-dozen other employees who attempted to transfer their sponsorship either at the end of their contract or midway through the contract only to be refused.

A ministry had aggressively recruited an expat friend of mine as a translator with a high salary, but his employer refused to release him. In effect, they worked as indentured servants.

My husband — this was before we married — left Saudi Arabia and following our marriage returned to find a better paying job and benefits.

This time we insisted that he remained under my sponsorship and worked independently of his employer. We discovered that employers were ill informed about the laws of private Saudi sponsorship and there was some confusion as to whether he could work under a private kafala (sponsorship). In the end, it turned out fine. The plus side to this arrangement was that he could leave at anytime.

However, we discovered there were consequences. When an employee on a private sponsorship exercises his rights, his employer has the ability to punish him when he leaves the company.

When the Labor Ministry decided to purge the country of illegal workers and revamp the labor system, it had a golden opportunity to change many laws that would give legal and hardworking expats equal footing to their Saudi counterparts — a legitimacy that would take nothing away from Saudi employers, Saudi workers or the Saudi government.

One such change should have been to ensure that every expat keeps his or her passport.

And, of course, the most obvious, would be to allow an expat to seek employment elsewhere, if she or he desires, once the contract is terminated and without retribution from the employer. If the employee wants to leave the company before his or her contract is terminated, then at least there should be a mechanism that allows the employee and employer to negotiate a release either to return to their native country or seek other work.

Saudis applaud the aggressive work the Labor Ministry performed recently to remove undocumented workers from the payroll and make clearer the rights of employees and employers.

Unfortunately, key elements have been ignored, giving little relief to the hardworking foreign professionals that help keep this country running.