Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Saudi Arabia (Ratification: 1978)

The Committee notes that, in November 2024, the Governing Body declared receivable a representation submitted by the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) under article 24 of the ILO Constitution, alleging non-observance by Saudia Arabia of Convention No. 81, as well as of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, the Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95), the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), and decided to appoint a tripartite committee to examine it (GB.352/INS/20/8 paragraph 6). The Committee notes that the allegations contained in the representation refer to Articles 10, 16 and 18 of Convention No. 81. In accordance with its usual practice, the Committee has decided to suspend its examination of these issues pending the decision of the Governing Body in respect of the representation.

Articles 3(1) and (2) of the Convention. Functions of labour inspectors.1. Additional functions of labour inspectors concerning migrant workers. The Committee notes the addition of paragraph 5 to section 196 of the Labour Law, which provides that, in addition to monitoring the implementation of the Labour Law and providing employers and workers with information and technical guidance, labour inspectors have the obligation to verify violations detected by other competent government agencies and referred to the Ministry, as well as proposing the appropriate fine in accordance with the schedule of violations and penalties. The Committee notes that the Government does not provide information on how it ensures that additional functions assigned to labour inspectors do not interfere with their primary objective of enforcing relevant legislation and protecting workers, nor on how labour inspectors’ time and resources are allocated between verifying employment legality and enforcing relevant legal provisions. The Committee urges once again the Government to take specific measures to ensure that the functions assigned to labour inspectors do not interfere with the main objective of labour inspectors, in accordance with Article 3(1), to secure the enforcement of the legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers while engaged in their work. It requests once again the Government to provide detailed information on the time and resources of the labour inspectorate spent on activities aimed at verifying the legality of employment compared to activities spent on securing the enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers. The Committee once again requests the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure that migrant workers who are found to be in an irregular situation, pursuant to section 33 of the Labour Law, are granted their due rights, such as the payment of outstanding wages or access to proper employment contracts.

2. Protection of the rights of migrant workers, including in relation to the payment of wages and compensation for workplace injuries. The Government indicates in its report that the follow-up to undertakings’ compliance with the Wages Protection Programme in the first quarter of 2019 and in the first quarter of 2020 was completed. The compliance rate of the wage protection system reached 75 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 and 60 per cent in the first quarter of 2020. A total of 1,799 notifications were received on employers’ failure to submit the “wage protection file” on a monthly basis. In this respect, the Committee takes note of the measures taken against undertakings that did not comply with the Wages Protection Programme, in particular: (i) stopping services to undertakings that have not achieved 80 per cent of compliance on a monthly basis; (ii) organizing inspection visits to undertakings (with more than 200 workers) that did not achieve 70 per cent of compliance; and (iii) stopping all services, including issuing work permits, with undertakings that have not submitted the wage protection file for more than a year. The Committee notes the information received from the Government regarding Ministerial Order No. 20912 of 2019 implementing the Anti-harassment Act of 2018, and that it applies to all workers employed by undertakings. The Committee notes that the Labour Inspection Reports of 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 include general information on the number of inspections conducted and the number of violations reported to the competent authorities, although they do not include details on enforcement measures and penalties, nor information disaggregated by nationals and non-nationals, or the classification of violations by relevant legal provision. The Committee also notes that the Government once again has not provided information on the payment of outstanding entitlements to migrant workers before their return to their country of origin. The Committee requests the Government to provide statistical information disaggregated by nationals and non-nationals on the number of inspections, violations, warnings and other enforcement measures taken, and penalties imposed, classified by the legal provisions to which they relate, including section 6 of the Implementing Regulations of the Labour Law No. 70273 of 2018, the Ministerial Order No. 20912 of 2019 and the Anti-Harassment Act of 2018. The Committee also once again requests the Government to provide statistical information on the payment of outstanding entitlements to migrant workers (including compensation for workplace injuries or the payment of wages) before their return to their country of origin.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.