Absenteeism Rate

What the absenteeism rate is

The absenteeism rate (معدل التغيب) is the ratio of days of unplanned absence to the total working days available over a defined period. It measures absence that was not scheduled in advance, and approved leave is not part of what it measures.

How the absenteeism rate is calculated

The absenteeism rate is the number of days of unplanned absence, divided by the number of employees multiplied by the working days in the period, with the result multiplied by 100.

• Days of unplanned absence. They are the days recorded as unplanned absence during the period, counted across all the employees included in the calculation.
• Employees multiplied by working days. It gives the total of working days available in the period: each employee contributes one available day for every working day the period contains.
• Multiplied by 100. It turns the ratio into a percentage, which is the form in which the absenteeism rate is stated.

The calculation works on days that have been recorded as absence, and the procedure by which an attendance entry is amended after it has been recorded is covered under attendance regularisation.

A worked example of the absenteeism rate

Take an establishment with 25 employees, a working month of 22 days, and 33 days of unplanned absence recorded during that month:

• Working days available: 25 × 22 = 550.
• Absenteeism rate: 33 ÷ 550 × 100 = 6%.

Put another way, 6 of every 100 working days available to the establishment in that month were days of unplanned absence.

What enters the absenteeism rate and what stays out

Approved annual leave and public holidays do not enter the absenteeism rate, because both are scheduled and planned for. The entitlement to annual leave is covered in our guide to the annual leave balance, and the paid days on public occasions are covered under public holiday leave.

What does enter the absenteeism rate is sudden absence. It covers three kinds:

• Absence without permission. It is a day on which the employee did not attend and had no permission to be away.
• Lateness that amounts to a working day. It is late arrival whose total reaches the length of a working day, and which is then counted as a day of absence.
• Unplanned sick leave, according to the organisation’s policy. It enters the numerator where the organisation’s policy counts it there, so whether it is counted follows that policy.

Counting unplanned sick leave in the absenteeism rate is a measurement decision, and it does not alter the standing of that leave under the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل). Article 117 of the Labor Law gives a worker whose illness is proven a right to that leave, which makes it a lawful absence: its days are not absence without a legitimate reason in the sense used by Article 80 of the Labor Law, discussed below.

Mixing planned and unplanned absence raises the figure without adding meaning to it, and it can make an organisation that grants generous leave look as though it has a discipline problem.

When the absences behind an absenteeism rate become a matter under the Labor Law

The absenteeism rate is a management indicator, but continued absence has a statutory dimension. Article 80 of the Labor Law sets out the cases in which an employer may rescind the contract without an end of service award, without notice and without compensation. There are nine such cases, and absence without a legitimate reason is the seventh.

Under the seventh case of Article 80 of the Labor Law, rescission is available where the worker is absent without a legitimate reason for more than thirty days in one contract year, or for more than fifteen consecutive days. In either case Article 80 of the Labor Law requires that the dismissal be preceded by a written warning from the employer to the worker: after twenty days of absence in the first case, and after ten days in the second.

• Absence within one contract year. The written warning falls due after twenty days of absence, and rescission becomes available only once the total exceeds thirty days.
• Consecutive absence. It is an unbroken run of days. The written warning falls due after ten days, and rescission becomes available only once the run exceeds fifteen days.

The qualifier without a legitimate reason is the first condition of the seventh case. Absence for which a lawful ground exists, such as annual leave or sick leave, does not fall within it. Article 80 of the Labor Law does not cap how much a worker may be absent; it states when the employer may end the contract without award, notice or compensation.

One procedural condition attaches to every one of the nine cases of Article 80 of the Labor Law: the employer must give the worker the opportunity to state the reasons for their objection to the rescission. That condition is part of the article itself, and it applies to the absence case as it does to the other eight. The nine cases of Article 80 of the Labor Law are covered in our guide to dismissal without an award under Articles 80 and 81 of the Labor Law.

Reading the absenteeism rate alongside each employee’s absence

Because continued absence has this statutory dimension, the overall absenteeism rate is examined alongside the longest run of consecutive absence for each employee. The rate alone does not show that a particular employee’s absence is approaching the day counts in the seventh case of Article 80 of the Labor Law.

The longest consecutive run corresponds to the second route of the seventh case. The first route is counted differently, as the total of an employee’s days of absence without a legitimate reason within that employee’s contract year. Both figures are therefore kept for each employee.

The days that count toward the seventh case are also a narrower set than the numerator of the absenteeism rate. The rate can include unplanned sick leave where policy places it there, while the seventh case of Article 80 of the Labor Law reaches only absence without a legitimate reason.

The provisions relied on are those of the Saudi Labor Law as published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Article 80 (rescission without award, notice or compensation, its seventh case on absence, and its condition that the worker be given the opportunity to object) and Article 117 (sick leave, cited to show that it is a lawful absence). Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H, in force since 19 February 2025, amended a number of provisions of the Labor Law. That decree did not amend Article 80 or Article 117 of the Labor Law.

This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.