Employer Obligations

What employer obligations are

Employer obligations (التزامات صاحب العمل) are the duties that the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل) places directly on the employer toward its workers by express provision. They do not depend on what is written in the contract or in the establishment’s work organisation regulation. They sit in Chapter Two of the Law, Duties and Disciplinary Rules (الواجبات وقواعد التأديب), under the heading First: Duties of Employers (أولاً: واجبات أصحاب العمل), in Articles 61 to 64 of the Labor Law. The heading Second: Duties of Workers begins at Article 65 of the Labor Law, and it is discussed in employee obligations.

Article 61 of the Labor Law opens by adding its items to the duties provided for in the Law and in the regulations and decisions issued in implementation of it. It does not confine the employer’s duties to its six items. Other duties are set out elsewhere in the Law, such as the date for paying wages and the settlement of dues when the relationship ends. Wage payment dates and settlement of entitlements deal with those two.

The six items of Article 61 of the Labor Law

In the order of the Article, the six items are these:

• Item 1. The employer must not make a worker work as forced labour (سخرة). It must not withhold the worker’s wage, or part of it, without a judicial basis (سند قضائي). It must deal with its workers with due respect (الاحترام اللائق), and it must refrain from any statement or act that touches their dignity or their religion.
• Item 2. The employer must give workers the time needed to exercise the rights that the Law gives them, with no deduction from wages for that time. It may organise the exercise of the right in a way that does not disrupt the work.
• Item 3. The employer must facilitate every task of the staff of the competent bodies that relates to applying the provisions of the Law.
• Item 4. The employer must refrain from anything that nullifies or weakens equality of opportunity or of treatment in employment and occupation. The conduct covered includes exclusion, distinction or preference among applicants for work or among the employer’s workers, on the basis of race, colour, sex, age, disability, social status (الحالة الاجتماعية) or any other form of discrimination.
• Item 5. The employer must provide suitable housing for its workers. It may instead pay them a suitable cash allowance together with the wage.
• Item 6. The employer must provide suitable transport for its workers from their place of residence to the workplace. It may instead pay them a suitable cash allowance together with the wage.

Royal Decree M/44 added items 4, 5 and 6 to Article 61 of the Labor Law. According to the comparison table published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, the Article before the amendment contained only items 1 to 3, and the wording of those three items did not change. What the decree changed in other Articles is set out in 2025 Labor Law amendments (Royal Decree M/44).

What each item of Article 61 of the Labor Law says and what it does not say

• Item 4 is a prohibition on the employer. It does not grant a right to the worker. It covers applicants for work and the employer’s workers together. The item ends with the words «أو أي شكل من أشكال التمييز الأخرى» (in our rendering, or any other form of discrimination), so its list of grounds is open. It sits among the employer’s duties toward all workers and not among the provisions on women’s work. Age, sex and disability are discussed separately in ageism, women’s labour force participation and employment of persons with disabilities.
• Items 5 and 6 are duties, and a cash allowance may be substituted for each. The substitution is an option for the employer and it is not a choice for the worker.
• Item 2 lets the employer organise the time and does not let it deduct pay. The employer may decide how workers exercise the right so that the work is not disrupted. A deduction from the wage for the time is prohibited.
• Item 1 joins four duties in one sentence. They are the ban on forced labour, the ban on withholding wages without a judicial basis, due respect, and protection of dignity and religion. Of the four, the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law define only forced labour, in the next section.

Forced labour in Article 21 of the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law

The Labor Law does not define the phrase «تشغيل العامل سخرة» (in our rendering, employing a worker as forced labour). Article 21 of the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law defines it, in implementation of Article 61 of the Labor Law. The definition covers all work or services that are imposed on the worker by force, that are not provided for in the employment contract, that are carried out under threat of any penalty, and that the worker has not performed voluntarily. Work or services imposed by emergencies or force majeure are excluded from the definition.

The examples that Article 21 of the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law gives include wars, fires, floods, famines, earthquakes, violent epidemic diseases, invasions of animals or insects, and plant pests. The structure of the Implementing Regulations and their annexes is described in implementing regulations of the labor law.

Articles 58 and 60 of the Labor Law deal with assigning a worker to a different workplace or to different work than was agreed. That subject is separate from forced labour, and what Article 58 of the Labor Law provides is explained in transfer to another place of work.

Paragraph 2 of Article 21 of the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law provides that «الفقرة الخامسة» (the fifth paragraph) applies to workers in the private sector and the non-profit sector. It does not name the provision to which «الفقرة الخامسة» refers. We read it as item 5 of Article 61 of the Labor Law, which is housing. This is our reading, and the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law do not state it.

Article 62 of the Labor Law: pay for a period of prevention

Article 62 of the Labor Law provides that a worker who attends to perform the work at the appointed time, or shows readiness to perform it at that time, and is prevented from working only by a cause attributable to the employer, is entitled to the wage for the period in which no work is performed. The rule has two conditions: the worker attends or declares readiness, and the cause of the prevention is attributable to the employer. When both conditions are met, the worker is entitled to the wage without working.

The wage in Article 62 of the Labor Law has no qualifying word, so it is the actual wage (الأجر الفعلي) under the definition in Article 2 of the Labor Law, which is the subject of actual wage. Article 46 of the Model Work Regulation (Annex 1 of the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law) repeats the same rule, addressed to the establishment. Article 62 of the Labor Law does not define a cause attributable to the employer and does not list its forms, so each stoppage is assessed on its facts.

Here is an example with assumed figures. A worker’s actual wage is SAR 9,000 a month. Neither the worker’s contract nor the establishment’s work organisation regulation gives the month another meaning, and under Article 2 of the Labor Law a month is thirty days unless the employment contract or the work organisation regulation provides otherwise. The wage for one day is SAR 300 (9,000 ÷ 30). The worker attends at the appointed time, and work stops for four days for a cause attributable to the employer. The worker is entitled to SAR 1,200 for those days (300 × 4).

Article 63 of the Labor Law: substances prohibited by Sharia

Article 63 of the Labor Law provides that the employer, its agent or any person with authority over workers must prevent any substance prohibited by Sharia from entering workplaces. The penalties provided in the Law apply to anyone found with such a substance and to anyone who has taken it, without prejudice to the Sharia penalties. The prohibition addresses the employer, its agent and every person with authority over workers. Article 63 of the Labor Law does not list the substances and does not state the amount of the penalty.

Article 64 of the Labor Law: when the contract ends

Article 64 of the Labor Law, as amended by Royal Decree M/46 dated 5/6/1436H, requires the employer to do two things when the contract ends. First, it must give the worker, on the worker’s request, a service certificate free of charge. Second, it must return to the worker all the certificates and documents that the worker deposited with it. The timing of the final settlement is discussed in settlement of entitlements.

Article numbers shared with the Model Work Regulation

The Model Work Regulation (Annex 1 of the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law) uses some of the same Article numbers as the Labor Law, so each number below is named with its instrument. Articles 45, 46 and 47 of the Model Work Regulation (Annex 1) repeat items 1 and 2 of Article 61 of the Labor Law, and then Articles 62 and 63 of the Labor Law, addressed to the establishment.

Articles 61, 62, 63 and 64 of the Model Work Regulation (Annex 1) are different provisions, which concern penalties and disciplinary investigation. Article 64 of the Model Work Regulation (Annex 1) requires the worker to be notified in writing, the worker’s statements to be heard and the worker’s defence to be investigated before any penalty above a fine of one day’s wage. The service certificate is in Article 64 of the Labor Law, and it has no connection with that procedure.

The Model Work Regulation is an annex to the Implementing Regulations and not a provision of the Labor Law, so it binds an establishment only to the extent that the establishment has adopted it in its work organisation regulation.

Two provisions carry the number 21. In the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law it defines forced labour. In the Model Work Regulation (Annex 1) it deals with raises (العلاوات), a subject examined in annual performance report.

Where penalties come from

Articles 61 to 64 of the Labor Law do not fix an amount of penalty. Article 230 of the Labor Law provides for two tables that the Minister issues. The first lists the violations and the corresponding penalties that do not exceed half of the maximum penalty. The second lists the violations whose penalties exceed that half, and those that carry permanent closure. How the schedule is built is explained in violations and penalties schedule.

Reviewing an older contract template

A contract template written before the 2025 amendments took effect does not mention items 4, 5 and 6 of Article 61 of the Labor Law, because they were added afterwards. An employer that still uses an older template reviews it for its clause on discrimination and its clauses on housing and transport. This is a practical recommendation, and it is not a text of the Labor Law.

Are the six items of Article 61 of the Labor Law all that an employer must do?

No. Article 61 of the Labor Law opens by adding its items to the duties provided for in the Law and in the regulations and decisions issued in implementation of it. Duties in other Articles, regulations and decisions stay in force alongside the six items, and what Articles 62, 63 and 64 of the Labor Law provide is added to them.

In the sources we reviewed, we found no definition of due respect or of a judicial basis, and no period or procedure for exercising the right in item 2.

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