What labour inspection is
Labour inspection is the oversight that the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD) exercises over how the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل) is applied in establishments. Article 194 of the Labor Law provides that it is carried out by inspectors drawn from the Ministry’s employees or from other Saudis, who are designated by a decision of the Minister or the Minister’s delegate and who hold the powers that the Law confers on them.
The definition settles who inspects and on whose authority. What an inspector may do, and what an establishment owes the inspector in return, is set out in the articles that follow in the same chapter of the Labor Law. Royal Decree M/44, in force since 19 February 2025, amended some of those articles and deleted others, so the chapter as it stood before that date differs from the text in force. The articles of the chapter are covered one by one in our guide to inspector powers and establishment duties.
What a labour inspector is competent to do
Article 196 of the Labor Law sets out the competence of labour inspectors in six items:
- monitoring the implementation of the Labor Law, its Implementing Regulation (اللائحة التنفيذية) and the decisions issued under it;
- giving employers and workers the information and technical guidance that enables them to follow the best means of applying its provisions;
- notifying the competent officials at the Ministry of shortcomings that the existing provisions do not address, and proposing what is needed to address them;
- recording violations (ضبط المخالفات) of the Law, the Implementing Regulation and the decisions issued under them;
- verifying violations detected by other competent government bodies and referred to the Ministry;
- proposing the appropriate fine in accordance with the Schedule of Violations and Penalties (جدول المخالفات والعقوبات).
Two of the six items, the second and the third, concern guidance and the reporting of gaps in the rules rather than the recording of violations.
The fourth and sixth items are not new. The link between the inspector and the Schedule existed before the amendments made by Royal Decree M/44, so it is not presented as one of the changes that decree introduced.
The labour inspector’s power of entry, and where the text changed
Article 198 of the Labor Law gives labour inspectors the right to enter any establishment subject to the Labor Law at any time during the establishment’s working hours, without prior notice, and to carry out any examination or investigation needed to verify that the Law is being applied soundly. In particular, Article 198 of the Labor Law allows them to:
- question the employer or the employer’s representative, or the workers, individually or in the presence of witnesses, on any matter relating to implementation;
- inspect all books, records and other documents that must be kept under the Law and the decisions issued under it, and obtain copies and extracts of them;
- take samples of materials used or handled in industrial and other operations that are suspected of harming workers’ health or safety, for analysis in government laboratories, notifying the employer or the employer’s representative.
The power of entry is the most significant change in this chapter. Before 19 February 2025, Article 198 of the Labor Law allowed entry at any hour of the day or night. It now allows entry at any time during the establishment’s working hours. A source that still says an inspector may enter by day or by night is passing on a provision that has been superseded.
Article 198 of the Labor Law also contains no list of the documents an inspector will ask for. Its wording is a reference: the books, records and other documents that must be kept under the Law and the decisions issued under it. A closed list of what an inspector will request therefore cannot be based on Article 198 of the Labor Law.
Article 200 of the Labor Law requires whoever carries out the inspection to notify the employer or the employer’s representative of their attendance, unless they consider that the purpose of the inspection requires otherwise. The exception is part of the article, so a visit without notice of attendance is lawful where the purpose of the inspection calls for it.
An establishment’s duties during labour inspection
Article 199 of the Labor Law requires employers, their agents and those responsible at the workplace to give inspectors and the officials charged with labour inspection the facilities needed to perform their duty, to supply the data they request on the nature of the work, to respond to requests to appear before them, and to send a representative when asked to do so.
The words “those responsible at the workplace” are what Royal Decree M/44 added to Article 199 of the Labor Law. Before that decree the duty rested on the employer and the employer’s agent. It now reaches the person responsible on site personally, and not only the owner and the legal agent.
Article 202 of the Labor Law requires the inspector to keep complaints absolutely confidential and not to disclose to the employer, or to anyone acting in the employer’s place, that such complaints exist. That duty is addressed to the inspector. The confidentiality of an establishment’s internal reporting channels, such as corporate whistleblowing, is a separate matter that Article 202 of the Labor Law does not govern.
Under Article 201 of the Labor Law the inspector may also instruct the employer to modify the work rules on its machinery and equipment within deadlines the inspector sets, to protect workers’ health and safety. Where a danger threatens their health or safety, the inspector may require the immediate execution of whatever measures the inspector considers necessary to remove it. Article 204 of the Labor Law provides that doctors, engineers, chemists and occupational safety and health specialists join the inspection whenever needed.
How labour inspection is organised after the 2025 amendments
The procedure for carrying out inspections is not set out in the Labor Law itself. Article 209 of the Labor Law provides that the Minister issues the regulation governing and organising inspection work. Before the amendment, that regulation was issued by the Council of Ministers.
Royal Decree M/44 also deleted five articles of the Labor Law that described the paperwork and reporting around inspection:
- Article 203 of the Labor Law, which required the inspector to draw up a violation report (محضر ضبط) and raise it to the Minister;
- Article 205 of the Labor Law, on the labour office’s monthly and annual inspection reports;
- Article 206 of the Labor Law, on the comprehensive annual report on inspection;
- Article 207 of the Labor Law, on the forms used in inspection;
- Article 208 of the Labor Law, on training courses for inspectors.
The same decree deleted Article 195 of the Labor Law, which set the qualifications of an inspector, and Article 197 of the Labor Law, which required an inspector to sign an undertaking and to carry a card proving their capacity. None of these deleted provisions can be relied on today, whether to ask an inspector for a card or to expect a violation report in the form that Article 203 of the Labor Law once required.
The provisions relied on are those of the Saudi Labor Law as published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Article 194 (who inspects), Article 196 (the inspector’s competence), Article 198 (entry and examination), Article 199 (the establishment’s duties), Article 200 (notice of attendance), Article 201 (instructions on machinery and immediate measures), Article 202 (confidentiality of complaints), Article 204 (specialists joining the inspection) and Article 209 (the regulation on inspection work). Royal Decree M/44 amended Articles 196, 198, 199 and 209 of the Labor Law and deleted Articles 195, 197, 203, 205, 206, 207 and 208 of the Labor Law. That decree did not amend Article 194 of the Labor Law, and in the consolidated text published by the Ministry, Articles 200, 201, 202 and 204 of the Labor Law carry no note of amendment by it.
The labour inspection fine for not enabling inspectors
The Schedule of Violations and Penalties, issued by Ministerial Decision No. 112377 dated 21/8/1447H (9 February 2026), classifies not enabling inspectors to carry out their work, or not cooperating with them, as a grave (جسيمة) violation. The fine is the same in each of the three establishment size columns of the Schedule’s category of violations common to all activities: SAR 10,000 for an establishment with 20 workers or fewer, SAR 10,000 for one with 21 to 49 workers, and SAR 10,000 for one with 50 workers or more.
An establishment’s column is determined by the total number of its workers registered with the Ministry under the unified establishment number (الرقم الموحد) to which it belongs, not by a single commercial registration. How the columns, classifications and multipliers fit together is set out under Schedule of Violations and Penalties.
A fine figure for labour inspection is accurate as at a date. The Schedule is a ministerial decision that changes when the Minister changes it, so a figure taken from it is quoted with the decision number and date, and the three size columns are quoted together rather than one of them alone.
This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.
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