Expatriate and local workers, and their employers, alike are now covered new labor laws in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Some key provisions:

* It increases annual leave from 15 to 21 days and to 30 days for those who have completed five years of service.

* The end-of-service award shall be calculated on the basis of the last wage and the worker shall be entitled to an end-of-service award for the portions of the year in proportion to the time spent on the job.

* If a worker resigns his job, he will be entitled to one third of the award after a service of not less than two consecutive years and not more than five years. It will be increased to two thirds if his service is in excess of five successive years but less than ten years, and to the full award if his service amounts to ten or more years.

* A worker may not actually work for more than eight hours a day if the employer uses the daily work criterion, or more than forty-eight hours a week if he uses the weekly criterion. During the month of Ramadan, the actual working hours for Muslims shall be reduced to a maximum of six hours a day or thirty-six hours a week.

* The number of working hours may be raised to nine hours a day for certain categories of workers or in certain industries and jobs where the worker does not work continuously. It may be reduced to seven hours a day for certain categories of workers or in certain hazardous or harmful industries or jobs.

* In firms where work is done in shifts, an employer may, with the ministry's approval, increase the number of working hours to more than eight hours a day or forty-eight hours a week, provided that the average working hours in three weeks time shall not be more or less than eight hours a day or 48 hours a week.

* The employer pays the fees pertaining to recruitment of non-Saudi workers, the fees of the residence permit (iqama) and work permit together with their renewal and the fines resulting from their delay, as well as the fees pertaining to change of profession, exit and re-entry visas and return tickets to the worker's home country at the end of work contract.

See Kingdom's Labor Law Protects Workers' Rights: Ministry, Arab News, September 25, 2007, for more information.