A number of Saudi businessmen have called on the Ministry of Labor to allow expats to amend their profession and become partners in their employers’ businesses based on the Saudi foreign investors’ regulation.

They have also proposed that expats be allowed to invest in fields that lack Saudi investors and that household-workers’ employers, who own businesses, be allowed to have the professions of the domestic workers changed to ones under their commercial establishment’s sponsorship.

Wasif Kabli, vice chairman of the Commercial Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said some proposals have been filed with the ministry. These include requests to clarify the mechanisms concerning the recruitment of Burmese and Palestinian laborers and proposals to include expats in the Saudi foreign-investment system where an expatriate can own 49 percent of the business, aiming to eliminate cover-up practices (tasattur.)

“Other proposals are to allow an employer to try the worker for a period of time before transferring sponsorship and to enable an employer to have the professions of their household drivers and workers changed to others under the sponsor’s commercial establishment,” he said.

About 60 percent of large and medium-sized companies have shown commitment to the payment of fees imposed on the recruitment of foreign labors. Small-sized establishments have shown more commitment than larger ones due to their smaller number of workers.

The Ministry of Labor requires companies to pay SR 2,500 annually for each foreign worker.

The fees a company has to pay are calculated through the number of work visas issued. National labors are endorsed in a company’s records as soon as they are registered (by the company) in the Social Insurance System.