JEDDAH: Nidal Radwan, chairman of the National Committee for Labor, confirmed the new labor system regulations will be applied within the next two months.

The new system includes a number of key amendments, including the proposal to grant the working Muslim widow a leave period of 4 months and 10 days after the death of her husband, instead of 15 days provided under the current system.

Radwan said the committee contributed in the provision of proposals and views regarding the new system.

Those provisions regarding vacations and work hours have been excluded from the current approvals and have been resubmitted to the Shoura Council for further deliberation.

“We presented this subject, demanding a reduction of working hours from 48 hours to 40 hours per week and a two-day weekend instead of one day, but this has been returned to the Human Resources Committee of the Shoura Council for more study,” said Radwan.

While the committee put forward the proposals that are in favor of the workers, the chambers of commerce and industry submitted proposals that are in favor of employers. The Ministry of Labor and legislative bodies, such as the Shoura Council and the Panel of Experts then took into account what is appropriate.

About establishing workers unions in the headquarters of their businesses, Radwan explained: “Approvals had been issued from legislative bodies in 2001 to allow workers to create the so-called labor committees within the private sector enterprises.”

The goal of these committees would be to attend to workers’ claims in order to contribute to the provision of health and other requirements within the work environment, in turn benefiting the interests of all employees, he said, noting that there are already existing committees in the private sector.