Definition of an acting assignment
An acting assignment (التكليف), also called an acting role, is an arrangement in which an existing employee takes on the duties of another position for a known period without being appointed to it. When the period ends, the employee returns to their original position, or their situation is settled by a decision.
The Arabic word for it is broad, so the sense intended for the term has to be fixed. In everyday use, تكليف can mean giving any employee any task at all. It also appears as the opposite of volunteering, as when a role is said to be carried out by assignment rather than by choice. An acting assignment is narrower and more precise than either use: the duties of another position, for a period, without appointment. Those three elements, taken together, are what distinguish an acting assignment from the other arrangements it can be confused with.
When organisations use an acting assignment
- A temporary vacancy. The holder of the position is away on extended leave, on a temporary posting elsewhere, or off sick for a prolonged period.
- A sudden vacancy that opens before an appointment can be completed. It is the situation that shows whether succession planning has prepared anyone for the position or not.
- A test of readiness. An internal candidate is given the duties of a more senior role before a decision on promotion is taken.
- A project or a season that calls for additional duties over a period known in advance.
An acting assignment under Article 60 of the Labor Law
Changing what an employee does is not a purely administrative step. Article 60 of the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل) governs it, and its text reads:
مع عدم الإخلال بما تضمنته المادة (الثامنة والثلاثون) من هذا النظام، لا يجوز تكليف العامل بعمل يختلف اختلافاً جوهرياً عن العمل المتفق عليه بغير موافقته الكتابية، إلا في حالات الضرورة التي قد تقتضيها ظروف عارضة ولمدة لا تتجاوز ثلاثين يوماً في السنة.
Rendered in English: without prejudice to Article 38 of the Labor Law, a worker may not be assigned work that differs materially from the agreed work without the worker’s written consent, except in cases of necessity that exceptional circumstances may require, and for a period not exceeding thirty days in a year.
Article 60 of the Labor Law therefore sets two conditions, not one. The first is written consent wherever the difference from the agreed work is material. The second is a limited exception, confined to a case of necessity arising from exceptional circumstances and to a period of no more than thirty days in a year. What counts is the substance of the difference in the work, not a change of job title alone.
The opening words of Article 60 of the Labor Law leave Article 38 of the Labor Law untouched. Article 38 of the Labor Law bars the employer from employing a worker in a profession other than the one recorded on the worker’s work permit, and bars the worker from working outside their profession before the statutory procedures for changing it have been taken.
Article 81 of the Labor Law lists seven cases in which a worker may leave work without notice while keeping all of their statutory rights. One of them is that the employer, without the worker’s consent, assigns the worker work that differs materially from the agreed work, contrary to Article 60 of the Labor Law. The seven cases are set out in our guide to Articles 80 and 81 of the Labor Law. So the condition in Article 60 of the Labor Law is not a procedural requirement alone: a breach of it is one of the grounds on which the worker may leave with their rights intact. The same pair of provisions comes up under demotion, where a move to a lower role can involve work that differs materially from the agreed work.
What makes an acting assignment decision complete
- A start date and an end date, rather than “until further notice”.
- The scope of the duties covered, together with the duties that stay outside it, with the holder of the position or with their manager.
- The authority that comes with the duties: what the acting employee may approve on their own and what they must refer upwards. Duties handed over without the matching authority create responsibility without the means to discharge it.
- What is suspended from the employee’s original work. Without it, the acting assignment becomes two jobs carried out for one wage and within one working day, which is a question of workload management.
- What is recorded about pay, if any arrangement is made. It is settled in the decision itself, not after the decision has been issued.
The first item is the one that can be neglected. An acting assignment with no end date can turn, over the months, into a permanent situation that nobody actually decided on. The employee has not gone back to their original role, the organisation has not announced an appointment, and no one is able to say what the employee’s status is.
How an acting assignment differs from job rotation, internal mobility and delegation
- Job rotation. It is temporary as well, but its purpose is what the employee and the organisation gain from the move itself, not the covering of a vacancy. Job rotation is planned for the sake of learning, whereas an acting assignment is called on to meet a need that already exists.
- Internal mobility. It is the move of an employee to another role within the same organisation. An acting assignment does not move the employee into the other role: it keeps them in their own position and adds the duties of another position to it for a known period.
- Delegation. It grants the authority to take a decision on a specific matter, while responsibility for that matter stays with the person who granted it. An acting assignment is wider than a grant of authority: it covers the duties of a whole position, or of a defined part of one.
What repeated acting assignments reveal
An acting assignment that recurs in the same position is not a successful solution being repeated. It is an indicator of a critical role for which no replacement is ready. The response at that point is not a fourth acting assignment. It is documenting what has not yet been documented about the role, and preparing a replacement through a written plan.
The provisions relied on are those of the Saudi Labor Law as published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Article 38 (the profession recorded on the work permit, which the opening words of Article 60 preserve), Article 60 (no assignment of materially different work without written consent, with its exception for necessity of no more than thirty days in a year) and Article 81 (the worker leaving without notice while keeping all statutory rights, including where Article 60 is breached). Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H did not amend Articles 38, 60 or 81 of the Labor Law.
This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.
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