Saudi Arabia launches digital platform to make sure wage safety, human rights of expat staff

File picture used for consultant objective solely
| Picture Credit score: Reuters

With a collection of digitally enforceable measures and platforms, Saudi Arabia is on the brink of guarantee a safer working situation for overseas staff, together with these from India.

A gaggle of officers from the Human Sources and Social Improvement Ministry right here on Thursday offered the Saudi plans for assembly the Imaginative and prescient 2030 of the Saudi authorities and mentioned the Kingdom’s plans relating to the expat staff would safe staff’ rights and minimize down on unlawful immigration.

Additionally Learn:Will the brand new Saudi regulation assist migrant home staff? 

The brand new labour guidelines in Saudi Arabia — beneath a digital platform referred to as Musaned — will profit at the very least 10 African international locations like Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt and Kenya in addition to 9 Asian international locations akin to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Beneath the Musaned platform, overseas staff within the home (family) work sector can examine the present employment contracts and observe updates in a devoted Musaned labour app. This method permits overseas embassies to have “view entry” on the system on “all the main points associated to their residents working in Saudi (employer title, location, endorsed contract.”). Permitting the overseas missions a “view entry” is geared toward resolving labour disputes extra effectively.

Wage safety system

The Musaned platform might be linked with contract insurance coverage and well being advantages. The officers mentioned the Musaned platform would defend human rights and supply “steady working surroundings” for each the worker in addition to the employers. A very powerful function of the Musaned platform, in response to the officers, is that it supplies a “wage safety system” by following the employers’ obligations to pay the month-to-month wages for the employees. The digital platform can monitor monetary transactions between the employers and the overseas staff, thereby making certain the employers will fulfil the contractual obligations in the direction of the overseas staff.

Bangladesh, India and Pakistan present the most important variety of staff who serve within the home and personal labour sectors of Saudi Arabia. With 1.4 million staff, Indians maintain the second place within the Saudi labour market. The primary place is held by Bangladesh that presently provides round 2.7 million staff to the Saudi labour market. In keeping with the newest information provided by the Saudi Ministry of Human Sources and Social Improvement, Pakistan has provided round 2.1 million staff for the home households and personal sectors. Labour drive from Nepal, Indonesia, Sudan, Philippines, Yemen, Egypt and Uganda are a number of the different international locations whose labour forces within the Saudi market will even profit from the newly launched platforms and schemes.

The Musaned platform will even profit in settling of labour lawsuits, mentioned the officers right here. The Hindu was instructed that for the interval of 2021-24 there have been round 12,649 labour lawsuits involving Indian staff within the home (family) sector of Saudi Arabia.

Some of the essential options of the Musaned system is that it will permit the Saudi authorities to examine background of employers extra successfully and guarantee safety of staff’ rights. Whereas this technique will guarantee digital checking of the crime data of the employers, this will even permit equally enforceable measures that can stop arrival of unlawful immigrants into Saudi Arabia.

(The correspondent is in Saudi Arabia on the invite of the Saudi authorities for the Riyadh Season 2024 pageant of tolerance and tradition.)