10 July 2012
Expatriate women say it is getting harder than ever to find a job, especially as the government is focusing on finding work for citizens.
Despite high unemployment rates among Saudi women (78.3 percent among female university graduates according to a recent study), there is no denying the government is supporting them with several initiatives.
Moreover, companies and society have become more open than ever to the concept of Saudi workingwomen.
However, their expatriate counterparts in the Kingdom are not as lucky.
Sadia Sikandar, a Pakistani pharmacist in Riyadh, has been looking for a job for over a month.
She said: "Obtaining a Saudi pharmacist's license is the most challenging thing for me here, and for which I am working.
"Workingwomen should be given permission to work even if they are on their husband's iqama."
She is also concerned about her pay once she starts working because she believes salaries are not good here.
Barring a few exceptions including doctors, nurses, and teachers, expatriate women can legally work in very few professions here.
Dependent wives of expatriates working in Saudi Arabia are prohibited from working as stipulated on their iqamas. Some who choose to work do so illegally or through some private arrangements.
As such they face a number of challenges such as low salaries, a lack of incentives (air ticket to home country and iqama renewal expenses are borne by the husband) and transport allowance, all of which they are unable to negotiate for.
I. T., a female legal consultant in a firm in Jeddah who chose to remain anonymous, said: "Dependent expatriate workingwomen are considered as 'trailing wives' that are working for fun, hence investing in their growth and training is considered a losing investment.
"Moreover, many career-oriented women are willing to work for minimum wages just to be part of the working sector."
She said a woman's salary will always be scrutinized by her employer regardless or not if she is putting the same effort and working hours as her male colleagues, due to the fact "she is not considered a primary breadwinner and that the pay is simply nice pocket money."
In most cases, the wife does not get separate sponsorship with her company and it is the husband who is her sponsor.
I.T. said the Labor Ministry is aware that hundreds of expatriate women work without a work permit, but they show a high level of leniency due to several factors.
She added: "Usually, if the ministry is aware of such a matter it might request the transfer of sponsorship while fining both the employee and employer with an initial fee of SR 1,000 for the first offense, SR 2,000 for the second offense and SR 3,000 for the third offense, in addition to transferring their file to the Ministry of Interior to take the appropriate action, which may entail issuing a final exit."
Moreover, the ministry has far more serious issues to deal with at this point, such as Saudization and labor claims, the legal expert said.
Khalid Al-Khudair, founder of the first Saudi job portal for women Glowork, believes that it is essential to introduce legislation to allow expatriate women that come down with husbands to work for a certain period of time so that they are able to pass their knowledge on to Saudi women.
"Saudi women are our priority and them entering the workforce is a relatively new thing in the past decade," he said.
In its one year of inception, the portal has created some 2,600 vacancies for women, of which about 5 to 10 percent were open to expatriate women, and boasts a database containing the details of 1.5 million women, of which around 10 percent are expatriate women.
Al-Khudair said: "Employing expatriate women with experience would help develop locals of the same gender, especially in industries such as tourism, food and drink, where the percentage of women is relatively low, and no training is provided by females."
"Cosmetic stores are to be women-only by August, but men can't provide the training and there is a lack of resources among Saudi women.
"Similar is the case of jewelry shops, which are likely to be women-only by the year end."
He cited the example of Oman, where both male and female expatriates are given a work permit of three years only.
"There can be some extension of duration in areas such as the medical field."
Al-Khudair hoped expatriate women are allowed to work for a certain period of time in compliance with the labor law and help in nurturing Saudi women.
I.T. believes the main problem expatriate women face is acceptance by colleagues and peers.
In the absence of any legal employment options for expatriate women, many are channeling talents such as language skills, tutoring, baking, makeup, etc. to work from home.
However, I.T., who once worked remotely via e-mail, said the experience was rather a disappointing one.
"Remote employment may be an option. However, once I handed the work in it was impossible for me to get paid.
"Most companies do not incorporate such an option and require on the ground presence of the employee for efficiency and multitasking purposes."
"The concept of employing women in general is a fairly new one that is still to be embraced by the population.
"Therefore, I suspect that once this issue is formalized and we cease to be surprised when we see a women cashier or saleswomen, then the government must benefit from the fact that these women are making tax free money by either restricting their work and applying the penalties on those in breach or by taxing them an income tax."
Expatriate women say it is getting harder than ever to find a job, especially as the government is focusing on finding work for citizens.
Despite high unemployment rates among Saudi women (78.3 percent among female university graduates according to a recent study), there is no denying the government is supporting them with several initiatives.
Moreover, companies and society have become more open than ever to the concept of Saudi workingwomen.
However, their expatriate counterparts in the Kingdom are not as lucky.
Sadia Sikandar, a Pakistani pharmacist in Riyadh, has been looking for a job for over a month.
She said: "Obtaining a Saudi pharmacist's license is the most challenging thing for me here, and for which I am working.
"Workingwomen should be given permission to work even if they are on their husband's iqama."
She is also concerned about her pay once she starts working because she believes salaries are not good here.
Barring a few exceptions including doctors, nurses, and teachers, expatriate women can legally work in very few professions here.
Dependent wives of expatriates working in Saudi Arabia are prohibited from working as stipulated on their iqamas. Some who choose to work do so illegally or through some private arrangements.
As such they face a number of challenges such as low salaries, a lack of incentives (air ticket to home country and iqama renewal expenses are borne by the husband) and transport allowance, all of which they are unable to negotiate for.
I. T., a female legal consultant in a firm in Jeddah who chose to remain anonymous, said: "Dependent expatriate workingwomen are considered as 'trailing wives' that are working for fun, hence investing in their growth and training is considered a losing investment.
"Moreover, many career-oriented women are willing to work for minimum wages just to be part of the working sector."
She said a woman's salary will always be scrutinized by her employer regardless or not if she is putting the same effort and working hours as her male colleagues, due to the fact "she is not considered a primary breadwinner and that the pay is simply nice pocket money."
In most cases, the wife does not get separate sponsorship with her company and it is the husband who is her sponsor.
I.T. said the Labor Ministry is aware that hundreds of expatriate women work without a work permit, but they show a high level of leniency due to several factors.
She added: "Usually, if the ministry is aware of such a matter it might request the transfer of sponsorship while fining both the employee and employer with an initial fee of SR 1,000 for the first offense, SR 2,000 for the second offense and SR 3,000 for the third offense, in addition to transferring their file to the Ministry of Interior to take the appropriate action, which may entail issuing a final exit."
Moreover, the ministry has far more serious issues to deal with at this point, such as Saudization and labor claims, the legal expert said.
Khalid Al-Khudair, founder of the first Saudi job portal for women Glowork, believes that it is essential to introduce legislation to allow expatriate women that come down with husbands to work for a certain period of time so that they are able to pass their knowledge on to Saudi women.
"Saudi women are our priority and them entering the workforce is a relatively new thing in the past decade," he said.
In its one year of inception, the portal has created some 2,600 vacancies for women, of which about 5 to 10 percent were open to expatriate women, and boasts a database containing the details of 1.5 million women, of which around 10 percent are expatriate women.
Al-Khudair said: "Employing expatriate women with experience would help develop locals of the same gender, especially in industries such as tourism, food and drink, where the percentage of women is relatively low, and no training is provided by females."
"Cosmetic stores are to be women-only by August, but men can't provide the training and there is a lack of resources among Saudi women.
"Similar is the case of jewelry shops, which are likely to be women-only by the year end."
He cited the example of Oman, where both male and female expatriates are given a work permit of three years only.
"There can be some extension of duration in areas such as the medical field."
Al-Khudair hoped expatriate women are allowed to work for a certain period of time in compliance with the labor law and help in nurturing Saudi women.
I.T. believes the main problem expatriate women face is acceptance by colleagues and peers.
In the absence of any legal employment options for expatriate women, many are channeling talents such as language skills, tutoring, baking, makeup, etc. to work from home.
However, I.T., who once worked remotely via e-mail, said the experience was rather a disappointing one.
"Remote employment may be an option. However, once I handed the work in it was impossible for me to get paid.
"Most companies do not incorporate such an option and require on the ground presence of the employee for efficiency and multitasking purposes."
"The concept of employing women in general is a fairly new one that is still to be embraced by the population.
"Therefore, I suspect that once this issue is formalized and we cease to be surprised when we see a women cashier or saleswomen, then the government must benefit from the fact that these women are making tax free money by either restricting their work and applying the penalties on those in breach or by taxing them an income tax."
© Arab News 2012
