Perhaps the single most significant contribution that the Labor Ministry has made in the past decade that actually can be deemed a success is its ongoing campaign to reduce the number of illegal expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia.
Perhaps the Labor Ministry’s greatest failure over the last 10 years is making sure there were Saudis to fill the jobs left by expats who were either deported or left the Kingdom voluntarily.
Saudis generally applaud the labor raids and the Nitaqat program. Saudi women especially have long held the view that expats take away potential jobs from them. And because Saudi society encourages it, some expat workers take advantage of the limited rights of Saudi women, such as independent drivers who hold sway over their female employer’s personal and work schedules by making themselves available according to their own schedule.
This is not an attitude from Saudis that expats like to hear, especially among expats who count Saudis as their closest friends. I value my friendships with my expat colleagues, but I have also seen the damage done to my country by our own unwillingness to work, no matter how menial. We have rejected so many kinds of jobs as beneath us that we have virtually surrendered our country to foreigners.
But now we are in a pickle as it becomes increasingly evident the huge vacuum created as expats exit Saudi Arabia and just how ill-prepared the Labor Ministry is to fill that vacuum with qualified Saudis.
Nearly 120,000 expat workers have left their jobs and headed for home in November alone. Many shops remain closed or severely understaffed. Competent tailors, for example, have virtually disappeared from Jeddah. And the idea of a ready male Saudi tailor workforce is laughable. I do see more Saudi men working in malls and even fast-food restaurants, which was unthinkable a decade ago. And the number of women increases daily in the retail sector with their expertise and confidence in salesmanship also increasing.
Yet these are minor successes that don’t begin to address the vital issue of finding qualified and educated Saudis to fill jobs left vacant by the labor raids. Private business owners have complained bitterly about the crippling shortage of engineers and the fact that so few Saudis are qualified to fill in middle management positions. Businesses are so desperate to fulfill their Nitaqat obligations that just about any Saudi will do in a management position much to the detriment of the operations of the company.
The Labor Ministry clearly put the cart before the horse. It was so determined to get rid of foreign workers that it neglected to implement a comprehensive phase 2 strategy to fill those jobs with competent people. Instead, Saudi authorities are fulfilling the long-held stereotype of Saudi workers twiddling their thumbs at their desks while watching the clock for the day to end.
The easiest and most practical solution to this mess is the one most likely not to be considered because it means tainting Saudi Arabia’s national treasure: Putting Saudi women in the workplace. And not in the retail sector, which is enjoying moderate success, but in middle and upper management jobs once held by Arab expats.
We must get over ourselves and quit worrying about the non-existent threat to female virtue if we allow women in the workplace. Nearly 60 percent of today’s Saudi graduates are women, giving employers a deep pool of untapped Saudi talent.
But to tap into that talent, private businesses must work with the government to loosen those patriarchal shackles that prevent women from working and help employers recover from the shock of losing their expat workforce. Of course that means rethinking the guardianship rules, work environment, and hiring women in supervisory roles.
All of this is too difficult to imagine for many Saudis, but if business owners want to protect their companies from financial ruin and if the government wants to save face and not see Nitaqat become another failure, Saudis better start rethinking the role women should play in society.
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