Disciplinary Record Sheet

What a disciplinary record sheet is

A disciplinary record sheet (صحيفة الجزاءات) is an individual record kept for each worker. It records the type of violation the worker committed, the date on which it occurred and the penalty imposed, and it is kept in the worker’s service file. The basis is Article 69 of the model work regulation (النموذج الموحد للائحة تنظيم العمل), which is Annex 1 to the Implementing Regulation (اللائحة التنفيذية) of the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل).

The sheet is individual. It follows one worker from one violation to the next, and it does not gather the fines of the whole establishment. That is what separates it from the fines register described below.

What Article 69 of the model work regulation says

The Arabic text of Article 69 of the model work regulation is:

يخصص لكل عامل صحيفة جزاءات، يدون فيها نوع المخالفة التي ارتكبها، وتاريخ وقوعها، والجزاء الموقع عليه؛ وتحفظ هذه الصحيفة في ملف خدمة العامل.

The English rendering is ours, not an official translation. Each worker is assigned a disciplinary record sheet. It records the type of violation the worker committed, the date it occurred and the penalty imposed, and it is kept in the worker’s service file. The text has four elements: a sheet for each worker, three items of data entered in it, the place where it is kept, and the verb «يخصص» (is assigned), which carries no word of permission.

The model work regulation is not part of the Labor Law. It binds an establishment to the extent that the establishment adopted it in its work organisation regulation (لائحة تنظيم العمل). Each Article of the model work regulation is cited below with the instrument named, because the same Article numbers are used in the Labor Law. Article 69 of the Labor Law, for example, deals with a different subject, the two thirty day limits on accusing a worker and on imposing a penalty.

What the sheet records

Article 69 of the model work regulation names three items of data:

• The type of violation. The act the worker committed. Article 58 of the model work regulation defines a violation as any act by a worker that calls for one of the penalties it goes on to list.
• The date it occurred. This is the date the violation took place. It is not the date the violation was discovered or the date the worker was notified of the penalty.
• The penalty imposed. One of the seven penalties listed in Article 58 of the model work regulation. The first is the written warning, covered under written warning. The list also includes the financial fine, covered under disciplinary fine, and suspension from work without pay, covered under suspension.

The procedures that come before a penalty is imposed are covered under disciplinary action. The sheet records the result of those procedures.

In the sources we reviewed, we found no text on the form of the sheet, including whether it is printed or electronic and whether there is a standard form or each establishment designs the form. We found none on whether the worker may see the sheet or take a copy, none on whether earlier violations stay on the sheet after the 180 day period of Article 61 of the model work regulation (described below) or after the relationship ends, and none on what follows for an establishment that does not keep the sheet.

Dates that the sheet does not list

Three deadlines run from dates that Article 69 of the model work regulation does not list among the sheet’s three items. Our reading is that the sheet does not show these dates unless the establishment adds them:

• The date the worker was notified of the penalty. Article 61 of the model work regulation counts its 180 days from this date, and Article 68 of the Labor Law states the same rule. Article 68 of the model work regulation requires the notification to be in writing.
• The date the violation was discovered. Under the first sentence of Article 69 of the Labor Law, a worker may not be accused of a violation more than thirty days after it was discovered. The sheet records when the violation occurred, which can be earlier than when it was discovered.
• The date the investigation ended. Under the second sentence of Article 69 of the Labor Law, a disciplinary penalty may not be imposed more than thirty days after the investigation into the violation has ended and the violation has been established against the worker.

Article 69 of the model work regulation neither provides for adding items to the sheet nor forbids it. Two further thirty day limits, in Articles 66 and 67 of the model work regulation, run from the date the establishment learned who committed the violation and from the date the violation was established. They are covered under positive discipline.

Where the sheet sits among the penalty Articles of the model work regulation

Article 69 of the model work regulation sits in the chapter on violations and penalties. Four Articles of the same Annex work together around it:

• Article 61 of the model work regulation. A penalty cannot be made heavier for a repeated violation when 180 days have passed since the earlier violation, counted from the date the worker was notified of the penalty for that violation.
• Article 62 of the model work regulation. Subject to Article 61 of the model work regulation, if a worker repeats the same violation and has already gone through the penalties prescribed for it, the heaviest penalty prescribed for that violation applies.
• Article 68 of the model work regulation. The establishment must notify the worker in writing of the penalties imposed, their type and amount, and the penalty the worker would face on repeating the violation. If the worker refuses to receive the notice, refuses to sign for it or is absent, the establishment sends it by registered post to the chosen address recorded in the service file, or to the personal email recorded in the work contract or approved by the establishment.
• Article 69 of the model work regulation. It provides the sheet, in which the result of all this is recorded.

Articles 61 and 62 of the model work regulation both look back at earlier violations and the penalties imposed for them, and the sheet records those facts for each worker. The model work regulation does not make the sheet the only evidence of them.

A worked example: a worker who repeats a violation

A worker received a written warning for repeated lateness and was notified of it in writing on 10 January 2026. The dates are invented, and the day counts are our calculation on the text of Article 61 of the model work regulation. The two scenarios below are alternatives and do not combine.

• Scenario 1: a similar violation on 20 June 2026. 161 days have passed since the notice, which is fewer than 180. Article 61 of the model work regulation does not prevent a heavier penalty for this repetition. Article 63 of the model work regulation continues to apply: one penalty for each violation, and a fine for a single violation of no more than five days’ wage.
• Scenario 2: a similar violation on 20 July 2026. 191 days have passed since the notice, which is more than 180. Article 61 of the model work regulation bars a heavier penalty for this repetition, because more than 180 days have passed since the earlier violation, counted from the date the worker was notified. Suppose the June repetition had also occurred and the worker had been notified of a penalty for it. The July repetition would then be measured from the notification of the June penalty and not from 10 January.
• Reading the sheet. Under Article 69 of the model work regulation, the sheet shows the date, type and penalty of the earlier violation. It does not show the notification date of 10 January unless the establishment records that date on it. An establishment that has not recorded the notification date elsewhere cannot calculate the 180 days exactly.

Article 61 of the model work regulation does not say whether day 180 falls inside the period or outside it, or whether official holidays are excluded. For that reason the example uses two dates well away from the limit.

The sheet and the fines register

The sheet and the fines register are separate records, although both can contain a worker’s fines:

• The disciplinary record sheet. It is kept for each worker and covers every type of penalty, not only the fine. Article 69 of the model work regulation has it kept in the worker’s service file.
• The fines register. It is a register devoted to fines and covers all the establishment’s workers. Article 73 of the Labor Law requires the employer to enter in it each fine imposed on a worker, with the worker’s name, the amount of the worker’s wage, the amount of the fine, the reason it was imposed and the date. Article 70 of the model work regulation refers to Article 73 of the Labor Law for the entry.
• The use of fines. Under Article 73 of the Labor Law, fines may be used only for what benefits the establishment’s workers. The decision on their use is made by the workers’ committee (اللجنة العمالية), or with the Ministry’s approval where there is no committee. The committee is covered under workers’ committee.
• The Implementing Regulation. Article 5 of the Implementing Regulation lists the fines register (سجل قيد الغرامات) among the statements, registers and files that the employer keeps at the workplace, on paper or in electronic form. It also lists a work file for each worker (ملف عمل لكل عامل), containing the worker’s data, address, a copy of the work contract and the certificates and documents the worker provides.

According to these texts, a fine imposed on a worker is entered in two places: the fines register and the worker’s sheet. In our assessment neither record replaces the other, because each holds different data. Deducting the fine from the wage is covered under wage deduction.

The service file and the work file

Article 69 of the model work regulation says «ملف خدمة العامل» (the worker’s service file), and Article 5 of the Implementing Regulation says «ملف عمل لكل عامل» (a work file for each worker). In the sources we reviewed, we found no text that defines the service file or says whether it is the same file that Article 5 of the Implementing Regulation lists. The ordinary meaning of an employee file is explained under employee file, and we do not claim that it matches either instrument.

Article 68 of the model work regulation also refers to the chosen address recorded in the worker’s service file. Read together, the two Articles show the service file as the place where the worker’s address and the worker’s sheet are both kept.

Records and instruments that differ from the sheet

• The investigation minute. It records what Article 71 of the Labor Law requires before a penalty: written notification of the allegation, questioning of the worker and investigation of the worker’s defence, all recorded in a minute deposited in the worker’s file. Article 64 of the model work regulation uses the wording «وسماع أقواله، وتحقيق دفاعه» (hearing the worker’s statements and investigating the worker’s defence). The sheet records the result and not the steps, which are covered under internal investigation.
• The written warning. It is a letter the establishment sends to the worker under Article 58 of the model work regulation. The sheet records that the warning was imposed.
• Performance appraisal. It is a periodic report on work, not on violations. The model work regulation has separate Articles on it.
• The Schedule of Violations and Penalties (Ministerial Decision No. 112377). It deals with the penalties and fines that fall on an establishment for contravening the Labor Law. It does not deal with the penalties that fall on a worker under the establishment’s regulation.

The sheet is provided for in the model work regulation. Where an establishment adopted a work organisation regulation worded differently from the model work regulation, that establishment’s wording is the reference for its sheet, and that case is not examined here.

What to document

These are practical recommendations, not conditions found in the Article:

• Dates beyond the three items. Record with each penalty the date the violation was discovered, the date the investigation ended and the date the worker was notified, so that all three deadlines can be calculated from the sheet.
• A reference to the minute. Note on each entry the minute deposited in the file, so that the file shows the steps before the penalty were completed.
• An entry in both records. Enter a fine in the fines register and on the sheet together, and check that the amount matches in both.
• A check before a heavier penalty. Calculate the 180 days from the recorded notification date before imposing a heavier penalty for a repeated violation.
• Facts only. Write the facts and the penalty, without describing the worker or passing judgement on the worker as a person.

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