What a compliance certificate is
A compliance certificate (شهادة الالتزام) is a document issued by the body that measures an establishment’s compliance under a particular system, attesting to the establishment’s status in that system on the date of issue. It reports a status at a point in time. It is not a permanent ruling, and it covers nothing outside the system that issued it.
A compliance certificate speaks for one system, not for compliance as a whole
An employer’s regulatory obligations are spread across different bodies and programmes, and each of them measures compliance with its own tools. The Wage Protection System (برنامج حماية الأجور) checks that wages are paid on time and in the amount agreed. The Nitaqat programme (نطاقات) classifies an entity into a band according to its Saudization ratio, as set out in our guide to Nitaqat band classification. The General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) measures registration and the payment of contributions.
So the question of whether an establishment is compliant cannot be answered with a single figure. The answer is a status in each system separately, and a compliance certificate reports on one of those systems at a time.
The platform behind a compliance certificate is a channel, not the source of the duty
One distinction needs care. A platform is the channel through which a service is delivered; it is not the source of the obligation. The accurate statement is that an employment contract is documented electronically through the Qiwa platform (قوى) in fulfilment of Article 51 of the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل), not that Qiwa obliges the employer to document the contract. The documentation duty entered Article 51 of the Labor Law with the amendments made by Royal Decree M/44 dated 8/2/1446H; before them, Article 51 of the Labor Law required the contract to be written in two copies and said nothing about documentation. How documentation works on the platform is covered in our guide to employment contract attestation on Qiwa.
The same distinction applies to the certificate. A compliance certificate follows the channel that issued it, while the obligation follows the provision that created it.
The Wage Protection compliance percentage, the clearest measure behind a compliance certificate
The clearest form of compliance measurement is the compliance percentage in the Wage Protection System. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD) describes it as a cycle of four steps rather than a single filing:
- When the wage file is uploaded, the establishment’s representative sees the compliance percentage and receives violations and alerts immediately.
- The employer may submit a justification for a violation that has been identified.
- The employee accepts or rejects that justification from the employee’s account on the Mudad platform (مدد).
- The compliance percentage is updated on the basis of the employee’s response.
The consequence is that the percentage is not in the employer’s hands alone. A justification is a request, not a settlement, and the decision on it rests with the employee.
HRSD publishes that a compliance percentage exists, that it appears on upload and that it moves when an employee responds to a justification. In the sources we reviewed, we found no published formula for how the percentage is calculated. The method of calculation therefore cannot be described, and no particular figure can be called safe: a statement on either point would be an inference with no source behind it.
The compliance percentage behind a compliance certificate is a threshold with a set fine
An unpublished formula does not mean the percentage has no effect. The Schedule of Violations and Penalties under the Labor Law and its Implementing Regulation (اللائحة التنفيذية), issued by Ministerial Decision No. 112377 dated 21/8/1447H (9 February 2026), classes as a serious (جسيمة) violation not uploading the wage protection file monthly, or uploading it below the compliance percentage that the Ministry sets for the Wage Protection System. The fine is SAR 500 for an establishment with 20 workers or fewer, SAR 1,000 for an establishment with 21 to 49 workers, and SAR 2,000 for an establishment with 50 workers or more.
The wording of that entry settles how the percentage should be described: it is a threshold that the Ministry sets, and the Schedule does not publish it. An establishment is therefore measured against a figure it does not know in advance and sees only after uploading.
The status behind a compliance certificate shows up as a stopped service before it shows up as a fine
Compliance status is not a record consulted only when the need arises. It is a published condition of operational services:
- Transfer of an expatriate worker’s services to the establishment. It requires compliance with the Wage Protection System and, for most entities as HRSD’s service page states, a Nitaqat classification of green or above. The other stated conditions are a valid commercial register, an active establishment status, valid work permits across the entity and a sufficient establishment balance. The procedure is set out in our guide to transferring an expatriate worker’s services.
- Issuing a work permit. It cannot be done while the establishment is classified in the red band. A work permit is in turn a prerequisite for the Jawazat to issue or renew the expatriate worker’s residence permit (iqama), so a classification problem becomes a residence problem.
For that reason the effect of compliance can be felt first as an inability to hire, transfer and renew, rather than as a financial deduction.
How a compliance certificate differs from other certificates an employer meets
The word certificate is shared, while the issuer and the person the document concerns differ, and the documents below can be confused with one another:
- A compliance certificate. It concerns the establishment, and it is issued by the body that measures compliance in its system.
- The GOSI compliance certificate. It is issued by GOSI under Article 10 of the Social Insurance Law (نظام التأمينات الاجتماعية), issued by Royal Decree M/273. Under Article 10 of the Social Insurance Law, government bodies and companies more than 50% owned by the state must require the certificate before the establishment can collect amounts due to it, bid in tenders, amend, renew or cancel its commercial register, receive subsidies, be liquidated, obtain or renew a licence, or apply to recruit workers from abroad. It is the plainest example of a certificate from a single body on which each of those transactions depends. The wider system is described under social insurance.
- A service certificate (شهادة الخدمة). It concerns the worker, and the employer gives it under Article 64 of the Labor Law, on the worker’s request and free of charge. It states the date the worker joined, the date service ended, the worker’s profession and the last wage received, and it may contain nothing that harms the worker’s reputation or reduces the worker’s job prospects. Article 64 of the Labor Law also requires the employer to return all certificates and documents the worker deposited. In the Schedule of Violations and Penalties (Ministerial Decision No. 112377), not giving a service certificate and not returning those certificates and documents is fined, per worker, SAR 1,000 for an establishment with 20 workers or fewer, SAR 2,000 for one with 21 to 49 workers and SAR 3,000 for one with 50 workers or more. The duties that fall due when service ends are covered in our guide to wage payment dates and final settlement.
- A contribution certificate (شهادة المدد والأجور). It concerns an insured person registered with GOSI rather than the establishment, and, as its Arabic name indicates, it covers that person’s contribution periods and wages.
A compliance certificate describes the position on its date of issue
Compliance status changes by its nature. Nitaqat bands are updated weekly, and a worker’s weight is counted immediately on registration. The wage protection file is uploaded monthly. A compliance certificate is therefore a picture of the moment it was issued, and a decision taken on it months later rests on a status that may have changed more than once in the meantime.
The provisions relied on are those of the Saudi Labor Law as published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (Article 51 for the documentation of the employment contract, and Article 64 for the service certificate and the return of deposited documents), Article 10 of the Social Insurance Law as published in the Umm Al Qura official gazette (for the GOSI compliance certificate), and the Schedule of Violations and Penalties issued by Ministerial Decision No. 112377 (for the wage protection entry and the service certificate entry). The conditions on transferring a worker’s services and on issuing a work permit, and the steps of the justification cycle, are those HRSD publishes for its programmes and services. Royal Decree M/44 amended the Labor Law. That decree amended Article 51 of the Labor Law by adding the documentation duty.
This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.
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