New rules for women workers in Saudi Arabia

After the news of Saudi Arabia allowing women to travel abroad without approval from a male guardian, a few other momentous decisions regarding women have come about in the kingdom.

According to a report in the Saudi Gazette, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development in Saudi Arabia has made a decision to treat the male and female workers in the country at an equal level.

Both the men and the women will now be considered as workers/people working for an employer and under his or her management and supervision in return for a wage, even if they are not within sight.

This particular amendment in the labour regulation will not allow the employers and the entities to discriminate between workers on the basis of their age, disability and gender. This rule would also extend to hiring people for jobs and advertising



vacancies for employment.

Apart from this the authorities in Saudi Arabia have also nullified the retirement age rule- 60 years for men and 55 years for women. The authority has delegated that the retirement of the workers would be in tandem with the requirements of the social insurance rules and regulations.

The regulations also forbid the employers from terminating the services of the female employees or issuing them the notices of dismissal from the jobs, while they are on their maternity leaves. They also cannot be issued any kind of warning letters or get terminated in case they fall ill due to pregnancy-induced ailment or a health concern at the time of delivery. However their illness must be attested, by means of an authentic medical report and the employee's absence from work should not be over a 180 days- whether continuous or intermittent.