Saudi Arabia: Indian, Bangladeshi workers in private companies cap at 40 percent each

Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has legalized the percentage of workers of some nationalities who are entitled to work in private sector institutions in the country, local media reported on Wednesday.

The Qiwa online portal of the ministry of human resources and social development has specified that the maximum number of Indian workers allowed to work in a company is 40 per cent of the total workers. The same percentage of Bangladeshi workers while the limit for Yemeni workers was set at 25.

The portal notified some institutions of the percentage system via emails and a copy was obtained by Saudi Gazette.

With regard to establishments in which the number of workers exceeds the specified percentage, Qiwa explained that establishments will be allowed to issue and renew work and residence permits for workers, but there will be restrictions on issuing new visas or transferring the services of additional workers of the same nationality to these establishments.

Earlier, owners of establishment were unable to issue visas or transfer services to facilities where the number of workers exceeds the percentage specified for each nationality in the system.

The owners of establishments received the following message when they applied for the employment of workers or the transfer of labor services:

“You have exceeded the permissible limit of the number of workers for this nationality. So you can request one visa for this nationality in the event that there is no employee of this nationality with you,” Saudi Gazette reported.

The ministry had previously confirmed that there are certain percentages of workers’ nationalities for each facility as per its eligibility according to the system.

It is noteworthy that the Qiwa platform provides the services and solutions of the ministry to enhance the electronic services provided to the labor sector.

It aims to unify efforts, unify manpower services under one platform, and develop government services provided to the private sector electronically.