What hazardous occupations are
Hazardous occupations (المهن والأعمال الخطرة) are the occupations and jobs that the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل) describes as hazardous or harmful, or as liable to expose the worker to unusual hazards or harm, and that the Minister determines by decision under Article 131 bis of the Labor Law. The English phrase covers both halves of the Arabic, the occupation and the work performed in it.
The label is a statutory classification, not a management judgement. An establishment does not make an occupation hazardous in law by calling it so in internal documents, and that label carries no legal effect. The legal effect follows from what the ministerial decision designates. In the sources we reviewed, we found no copy of that decision, so no occupation is named as falling inside it.
Article 131 bis of the Labor Law: the source of hazardous occupations
Article 131 bis was added to the Labor Law by Royal Decree M/5 dated 7/1/1442H. Under Article 131 bis of the Labor Law, the Minister determines by decision the occupations and jobs that are hazardous or harmful, or liable to expose the worker to unusual hazards or harm, and the categories of worker who are barred from them permanently or temporarily, or who may be employed in them only on special conditions. That includes the extent of the need to set working hours for any of those categories. The article requires all of this to be done consistently with the Kingdom’s relevant obligations under international conventions.
Three matters are therefore joined in one provision: which occupations are designated, which categories of worker are barred from them or admitted on conditions, and the working hours of those categories where a limit is needed. Each of the three is left to the decision. Article 131 bis of the Labor Law speaks of categories without naming any, so the text does not itself say who is restricted. It also gives the Minister three forms of restriction, a permanent bar, a temporary bar and admission on special conditions, and reading it as a permanent ban alone drops the other two.
Article 131 bis sits in the second section (الفصل الثاني) of Part Eight (الباب الثامن) of the Labor Law, on the prevention of major industrial accidents. Royal Decree M/44 of 8/2/1446H, in force from 19 February 2025, amended the Labor Law. That decree did not amend Article 131 bis of the Labor Law, according to both the footnotes of the consolidated text published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development and the ministry’s table of the amendments.
Hazardous occupations and two repealed Articles of the Labor Law
A picture of this subject circulates that rests on two Articles which are no longer in force. Articles 149 and 150 of the Labor Law are marked repealed in the text in force, and they were repealed by Royal Decree M/5 dated 7/1/1442H. That is the same decree that added Article 131 bis of the Labor Law.
The text in force does not reproduce what Articles 149 and 150 of the Labor Law provided before their repeal, so we do not report that former content and do not infer it. The statement that the Labor Law prohibits employing women at night or in hazardous industries has no basis in the text in force. What we found in force on night work is narrower and comes from a ministerial decision, not from the Labor Law: Ministerial Decision No. 18632 dated 30/01/1441H prohibits night work for a pregnant worker for at least 24 weeks before delivery, and requires suitable work to be provided for her within normal working hours. How restrictions on kinds of work bear on women’s employment more widely is discussed under women’s labour force participation.
Whether Article 131 bis of the Labor Law took over the role of the two repealed Articles is a separate question. The footnotes of the text in force establish the shared decree and the shared date. They do not establish that one change replaced the other, and that is a legal question which the coincidence of dates does not answer.
Examples of hazardous occupations in the Implementing Regulation
In execution of Article 161 of the Labor Law, Article 32 of the Implementing Regulation (اللائحة التنفيذية) prohibits employing a young person, one who has completed 15 and has not reached 18, in occupations and jobs likely to endanger their health, safety or morals. It introduces the list that follows with these words:
«ومنها ما يلي»
English rendering: among which are the following.
- Work in mines or quarries, or extracting mineral substances from underground.
- Industries carrying health hazards.
- Arduous work (الأعمال الشاقة).
- Work that may expose the young person to physical hazards through operating high risk machinery, such as sharp cutting machines.
- Any work whose place or conditions of performance may expose the young person to moral, psychological or physical problems.
Those opening words decide the status of the list. The five items are examples given by the Implementing Regulation, not a closed list. Publishing them as the list of prohibited occupations attributes to the text a limit it does not state, and leaves outside the list work that falls within the rule. The list is also drafted for the band of young persons from 15 to 18, and it does not address any other group of workers. The wider statutory position on these prohibitions is set out in our guide to work prohibited for juveniles under the Saudi Labor Law.
Hazardous occupations and working hours under Article 99 of the Labor Law
Article 99 of the Labor Law allows the hours set in Article 98 of the Labor Law to be reduced to seven hours a day for certain categories of worker, or in certain hazardous or harmful industries and works. It also allows them to be increased to nine hours a day for certain categories of worker, or in industries and works in which the worker is not continuously occupied. Under Article 99 of the Labor Law, those categories, industries and works are set by a decision of the Minister.
In the sources we reviewed, we found no copy of that decision either, and the April 2025 edition of the Implementing Regulation contains no article implementing Article 99 of the Labor Law. So no occupation is named as a seven hour category on the strength of the text of Article 99 alone. The general ceilings, and the structure of the daily and weekly standards, are set out in our guide to working hours and weekly rest under the Saudi Labor Law, and the cases that set those ceilings aside are covered under working hours exemptions. Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H did not amend Articles 98 and 99 of the Labor Law.
How hazardous occupations differ from major hazard establishments and high risk occupations
The word hazardous appears in three classifications, and each rests on a different instrument and carries a different effect.
- Hazardous occupations. They are the classification under Article 131 bis of the Labor Law, and their effect concerns who may be employed in them and on what conditions. This is the classification the term refers to.
- Major hazard establishments (المنشآت ذات المخاطر الكبرى). They are a class of establishment, not of occupation. Article 128 of the Labor Law defines such an establishment as one that, permanently or temporarily, produces, processes, disposes of, handles, uses or stores one or more hazardous substances, or categories of them, in quantities exceeding the permitted standards. Article 129 of the Labor Law gives the Ministry the setting of the criteria for identifying these establishments, on the basis of a list of hazardous substances, or categories of them, or both, and Article 130 of the Labor Law requires employers to determine the status of their establishments in coordination with the Ministry. An establishment can therefore contain hazardous occupations without belonging to this class, and the reverse is also possible.
- Occupations classified as high risk (المهن المصنفة ذات المخاطر العالية). Their rules are in the regulation on occupational fitness examinations and noncommunicable diseases (لائحة فحوصات اللياقة المهنية والأمراض غير المعدية), issued by Ministerial Decision No. 33232 dated 11/3/1447H, and in its procedural guide. The guide makes periodic examinations mandatory for these occupations and sets their repetition at every three years, unless the competent occupational physician, or the council the guide refers to, determines otherwise according to the nature of the occupation and the assessment of its risks. It is a different classification made under a different instrument and referred to a different body. In the sources we reviewed, we found no list of the occupations classified as high risk. The designation under Article 131 bis of the Labor Law is therefore not taken to be that classification, and the effect of one is not carried over to the other.
Is there a closed list of hazardous occupations?
In the sources we reviewed, we found no closed list. The ministerial decision under Article 131 bis of the Labor Law was not located, and the list in Article 32 of the Implementing Regulation is a set of examples by the terms of the text. No barred category of worker is named either. The determination of categories is left to the same decision, and the older statements on barred categories have no basis in the text in force, which marks Articles 149 and 150 of the Labor Law repealed without reproducing them.
The provisions discussed above set no payment and no hazard allowance for hazardous work. Where such an allowance is paid, it is a matter of the terms of employment, and how an allowance paid for risk relates to the wage is the subject of hazard pay.
Hazardous occupations and the Schedule of Violations and Penalties
The Schedule of Violations and Penalties for the Labor Law and its Implementing Regulation, issued by Ministerial Decision No. 112377 dated 21/8/1447H, lists in its first category, the general violations applying to all activities, an employer’s failure to comply with the protection rules approved by the Ministry and to take the precautions needed to protect all workers. The Schedule classifies that violation as serious (جسيمة). The fines for that violation are set in three columns by establishment size: 20 workers or fewer, 21 to 49 workers, and 50 workers or more. A single figure taken from the row is correct for only one of the three columns, so an amount is quoted from the Schedule itself with all three columns together, never as one bare number. The part a committee can play in following up hazardous work inside an establishment is described under safety committee.
The provisions relied on are those of the Saudi Labor Law as published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Articles 98 and 99 (the hours ceilings and the seven hour and nine hour variations), Articles 128, 129 and 130 (major hazard establishments), Article 131 bis (hazardous occupations and barred categories), Articles 149 and 150 (cited as repealed) and Article 161 (young persons in hazardous work); together with Article 32 of the Implementing Regulation, Ministerial Decision No. 18632 dated 30/01/1441H, Ministerial Decision No. 33232 dated 11/3/1447H and Ministerial Decision No. 112377 dated 21/8/1447H. Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H did not amend Articles 98, 99, 128 to 131 bis or 161 of the Labor Law.
This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.
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