A webinar will discuss the Wage Protection System in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and increase participants’ awareness of its benefits to workers, employers, the economy and society.
A webinar will be organized by the ILO Regional Office for Arab States, the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, and the GCC Executive Bureau of the Councils of Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs, to discuss the Wage Protection System in the Kingdom and increase participants’ awareness of its benefits to workers, employers, the economy and society. An exposition of the recently launched Mudad platform will also be provided.
Wage Protection Systems are salary transfer systems that require employers to pay workers’ wages via banks, currency exchange centres, or financial institutions authorized by the Government.
In the Arab States and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in particular, and following the widespread practice of withholding wages – mainly of foreign workers – Gulf countries introduced these systems that require employers to make payments to their employees into their bank accounts to ensure an official record of wage payments that could also be monitored.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia introduced its Wage Protection System in 2013, to better regulate labour practices in the private sector and monitor wage payments to Saudi and non-Saudi workers. The system initially only covered private sector companies with over 3,000 employees. Since 31 December 2020, the system has become applicable to all private sector companies including Micro, Small & Medium sized Enterprises.
The Wage Protection System in KSA aims to establish a database that provides updated information on the payment of wages to workers in the private sector and to determine the extent to which enterprises are committed to the timely and complete payment of salaries.
A second version of the system was introduced through the Mudad platform, which became the official interface of the system on 3 November 2020. Amidst increased efforts exerted to protect workers’ rights and entitlements and promote a better working environment in KSA, the Saudi government ratified the ILO Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No.95) on 7 December 2020.
Discussants in the webinar will reflect on the Saudi system in the context of comparative regional and global experiences in order to draw good practices and lessons learnt.
The webinar will be held in English and Arabic, with simultaneous interpretation between the two languages.
The event will be held virtually through Zoom, on Thursday 5 August 2021, between 11:00am and 12:30pm Riyadh time.
