Labor Ministry: No firm exempted from Nitaqat

JEDDAH: No institution can be exempted from implementing the Nitaqat Saudization program, the Labor Ministry said yesterday. “Reports published by some newspapers that Labor Minister Adel Fakeih had exempted cleaning companies from Nitaqat lacked accuracy,” a ministry statement said.
The ministry warned that contractors and companies implementing government projects but failed to fulfill Nitaqat conditions would be categorized as “stalled firms” and would not be allowed to bid for future public contracts because of their failure to implement government contract regulations.
The ministry said the stalled firms would lose control of their workers, adding that they would not allowed to continue with them. “They will lose their authority on their workers and will not be able to make use of them for any project.”
The statement warned that the ministry would not allow any company to put pressure on it to obtain concessions at the expense of Nitaqat.
Referring to press reports on the issue, the ministry said they did not reflect the measures taken to deal with companies that have failed to comply with Nitaqat conditions.
“We have been following the situation of companies that have been implementing government projects, especially the cleaning of cities. We have noticed that some of them were not fulfilling Nitaqat rules by employing required number of Saudis,” it said.
This was the reason these companies were listed among the 'red category', denying them access to receive the ministry’s services such as issuance and renewal of work permits. This naturally resulted in halting the company’s work and obstructing government services such as cleaning cities and harming public interests. The statement said government departments supervising stalled projects should sign an agreement with the ministry to list the failed contracting company as a stalled firm.
The department should inform the ministry the number of workers it required for completing the project, including names of workers, their iqama numbers and nationalities, contract information and period. The ministry will then create a new file for that project based on the information provided and issue or renew iqamas of this group of workers in coordination with the department, not the contractor.
“We will not renew the workers of the stalled contracting company,” the ministry said. It instructed the department to make sure the workers involved in implementing the project get their salaries regularly.
The ministry will deduct the amount required for the deportation of workers after completing the project from their original employer. It will not allow these workers to continue with the contractor or transfer their sponsorship to other companies, except the company that won the new contract.
“The ministry wants to protect public interest. Similarly, it did not wish for the contractor to stall benefits from this measure,” the statement said, adding that it would continue to adopt new measures to encourage the private sector to employ more Saudi men and women.