Saudi HR Ministry allows transfer of workers without conditions

RIYADH — The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development announced the permitting of transfer (sponsorship change) of foreign workers between various private sector companies and establishments without any conditions.

The new arrangement, which was launched to meet the coronavirus situation, will be implemented through the ministry’s Ajeer hiring portal. The portal manages contractual relationships between the employers and employees.

The ministry said that under the new system, private enterprises can transfer their foreign workers without stipulating the types of their commercial activities. This comes within a series of initiatives announced by the ministry during the current situation, which contributes to facilitating the work of enterprises, and providing opportunities to benefit from the available manpower in the labor market.

The ministry indicated that the hiring service was made available through the website of Ajeer program, with the aim of facilitating work procedures and reducing workloads of the affected sectors through hiring more workforce, and support the sectors that are in need of more workers.

The private firms can benefit from the service electronically through the link https://ajeer.qiwa.sa. There is no need to contact personally to the branches of the ministry for the purpose.

The ministry said that this decision aims to make available sufficient number of foreign workers for the sectors that witness a high demand for manpower during the current period.

It will contribute to reducing expenses of firms that have less demand of workers to allow hiring their workers by firms that have a high demand for manpower.

The ministry has given a number of exemptions in their conditions for sponsorship change. These include exemption for condition under which transfer of workers is allowed in the same commercial activity and the upper limit for the transfer is 20 percent of the number of employees at the firm.