5-yr jail, SR10m fine for fake Saudization

January 26, 2014

labour_ministryTaif, Jan 26: Employers involved in fake Saudization will face 5 years imprisonment and a fine of up to SR10 million, according to a draft regulation prepared by the Ministry of Labor.

Violating businesses will be deprived of recruitment, government loans as well as blocked from participating in government bids and transferring sponsorships, according to the draft regulation, a section of the Arabic press reported on Saturday.

People will be encouraged to report any fake Saudization cases to the ministry by phone or through its website.

The ministry’s inspectors will then visit the violating businesses to verify the report.

The ministry explained that fake employment is where a business enlists a Saudi with the social security body without actually employing him in order to achieve its Saudization quota.

Unemployed Saudis can find out whether their names are listed with social security by logging on to the social security website and feeding their national identification card number. If they find that their names are listed with social security, they should immediately report it to the ministry.

The ministry listed various types of fake Saudization, which include enlisting a special needs national without entrusting him with work and enlisting a special needs national who is actually incapable of performing any duties.

Fake employment also includes employing women in jobs that are not suitable for them, and failing to update the data of any Saudi worker who has left his job.

Fake employment also includes enlisting a Saudi with social security even though he is a government or military employee, and transferring a Saudi from one sector to another for the purpose of increasing the Saudization quota in the other sector.

In 2011, the Kingdom imposed stricter penalties for failing to meet quotas for hiring Saudi citizens.

In 2012 it also introduced a levy of SR2,400 ($640) a year on every foreigner a company employed over the number of its Saudi workers.

Last week Riyadh announced it was introducing unemployment insurance for Saudis who lost their jobs for “reasons beyond their control” and who had been in work for more than a year.

The policy was designed to encourage more young Saudis to look for jobs in the private sector.

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Agencies
July 31,2020

Makkah, Jul 31: Organising this year's scaled-down hajj required "double efforts" by Saudi authorities amid the coronavirus pandemic, King Salman said Friday after being discharged from hospital following gall bladder surgery.

Only up to 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom are participating in this year's pilgrimage, compared with 2019's gathering of some 2.5 million from around the world.

"Holding the ritual in the shadow of this pandemic... required reducing the numbers of pilgrims, but it obliged various official agencies to put in double efforts," 84-year-old King Salman said in a speech read out on state television by acting media minister Majid Al-Qasabi.

"The hajj this year was restricted to a very limited number of people from multiple nationalities, ensuring the ritual was completed despite the difficult circumstances," he said.

The speech came on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice, a day after the king left hospital following a 10-day stay for surgery to remove his gall bladder.

The hajj, which began on Wednesday, is one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime.

Authorities implemented the "highest health precautions" during the rituals, the king said.

Pilgrims, who were all tested for the virus, are required to wear masks and observe social distancing.

For Friday's "stoning of the devil", the last major ritual of the hajj, Saudi authorities offered the pilgrims pebbles that were sanitised to protect against the pandemic.

In a sign that its strict measures were working, the health ministry reported no coronavirus cases in the holy sites on Wednesday or Thursday.

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Agencies
July 20,2020

Riyadh, Jul 20: Saudi Arabia's King Salman has been admitted to a hospital in the capital, Riyadh, for medical tests due to inflammation of the gallbladder, the kingdom's Royal Court said Monday in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The statement said the 84-year-old monarch is being tested at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The brief statement did not provide further details.

King Salman has been in power since January 2015. He is considered the last Saudi monarch of his generation of brothers who have held power since the death of their father and founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz.

King Salman has empowered his 34-year-old son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as his successor. The crown prince's assertive and bold style of leadership, as well as his consolidation of power and sidelining of potential rivals, has been controversial.

With the support of his father, Prince Mohammed has transformed the kingdom in recent years, opening it up to tourists and eroding decades of ultraconservative restrictions on entertainment and women's rights as he tries to diversify the Saudi economy away from reliance on oil exports.

The prince has also detained dozens of activists and critics, overseen a devastating war in Yemen, and rounded up top members of the royal family in his quest for power.

The Saudi king has not been seen in public in recent months due to social distancing guidelines and concerns over the spread of the coronavirus inside the kingdom, which has one of the largest outbreaks in the Middle East.

He has been shown, however, in state-run media images attending virtual meetings with his Cabinet and held calls with world leaders.

King Salman, who oversees Islam's holiest sites in Makkah and Medinah, was a crown prince under King Abdullah and served as defense minister. For more than 50 years prior to that, he was governor of Riyadh, overseeing its evolution from a barren city to a teeming capital.

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KT
June 15,2020

Dubai, Jul 15: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced the launch of a 'New Media Academy in Dubai on Monday - a new institution that will train people on the science of digital media.

Taking to Twitter, Sheikh Mohammed said that new media is a new science that has its own set of special tools and secrets, and that the future cadres of UAE must be at the forefront of it.

"The academy will prepare new experts and managers in the field of communication in government and private institutions, as well as training professional social media influencers", Sheikh Mohammed tweeted, adding that the new media is providing new job opportunities and careers today, and will always be a main supporter in the journey of development.

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