Statutory Working Hours

What statutory working hours are

Statutory working hours (ساعات العمل النظامية) are the ceiling that Article 98 of the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل) places on how long a worker may be employed. Article 98 of the Labor Law provides that a worker may not be employed in actual work for more than eight hours in a single day where the employer has adopted the daily standard, or for more than 48 hours in a week where the employer has adopted the weekly standard. The same article reduces actual working hours during the month of Ramadan for Muslims, so that they do not exceed six hours a day or 36 hours a week.

لا يجوز تشغيل العامل تشغيلاً فعلياً أكثر من ثماني ساعات في اليوم الواحد، إذا اعتمد صاحب العمل المعيار اليومي، أو أكثر من ثمان وأربعين ساعة في الأسبوع، إذا اعتمد المعيار الأسبوعي. وتخفض ساعات العمل الفعلية خلال شهر رمضان للمسلمين، بحيث لا تزيد على ست ساعات في اليوم، أو ست وثلاثين ساعة في الأسبوع.

That is the Arabic text of Article 98 of the Labor Law; the English above is our rendering of it, not an official translation. Three phrases in it are taken up below: the condition attached to each standard, the word actual, and the words for Muslims.

Statutory working hours under one standard, not two

The phrase that carries Article 98 of the Labor Law is where the employer has adopted (إذا اعتمد). The employer adopts one of the two standards, and the ceiling attaches to the standard that the employer has adopted:

• The daily standard (المعيار اليومي). It sets eight hours of actual work a day, which become six in Ramadan for Muslims.
• The weekly standard (المعيار الأسبوعي). It sets 48 hours of actual work a week, which become 36 in Ramadan for Muslims.

The weekly figure is not eight multiplied by six. It is an independent ceiling under an independent standard. Wording that states eight hours a day and 48 hours a week, joined by and, combines two ceilings that Article 98 of the Labor Law sets as alternatives to each other.

What actual work means in statutory working hours

Article 98 of the Labor Law speaks of actual employment (تشغيلاً فعلياً), and in this context the phrase means the time of employment itself. It is examined alongside Article 102 of the Labor Law, which excludes the periods set aside for rest, prayer and meals from actual working hours. So the word actual in Article 98 of the Labor Law decides what enters the statutory ceiling. Those periods, and the two standards, are set out in more detail in our guide to working hours and the weekly rest.

The legal use of the word actual differs from its use in management analysis, where actual hours mean the hours an employee has in fact worked, set against the hours announced or scheduled. The first is the content of a legal ceiling; the second is a comparison between a plan and a record. A period in which a worker is not working but must stay reachable raises a separate question about the word actual, discussed under on call time.

The Ramadan reduction in statutory working hours, as written

Article 98 of the Labor Law provides the Ramadan reduction for Muslims (للمسلمين). It is not drafted as a reduction for the whole workplace.

The reduction is one quarter under both standards. Under the daily standard it is two hours a day, from eight to six. Under the weekly standard it is 12 hours a week, from 48 to 36. Two divided by eight and 12 divided by 48 both give one quarter. A statement that names the two hours alone describes one of the two standards and leaves out the other.

Exceptions to statutory working hours that the Labor Law provides

• Article 99 of the Labor Law. It allows the hours to be increased to nine a day for certain categories of worker, or in industries and works in which the worker is not continuously occupied. It also allows them to be reduced to seven a day for certain categories of worker, or in hazardous or harmful industries and works. Article 99 of the Labor Law provides that those categories, industries and works are set by a decision of the Minister. They cannot therefore be identified from the text of the article itself, and no particular occupation can be named as a nine hour or a seven hour category on the strength of it.
• Article 100 of the Labor Law. It provides that in establishments where the nature of the work requires work by rotation (بالتناوب), the employer may, with the approval of the Ministry, employ a worker for more than eight hours a day or 48 hours a week. The condition is that average working hours, calculated over a period of three weeks or less, do not exceed eight hours a day or 48 hours a week. Both conditions are required together: the approval, and the averaging window.
• Article 106 of the Labor Law. It allows the employer not to be bound by Article 98 of the Labor Law, Article 101 of the Labor Law and paragraph (1) of Article 104 of the Labor Law in four cases:
  1. Annual stocktaking, preparing the budget, liquidation, closing the accounts, preparing for sale at reduced prices and preparing for the seasons, provided that the days on which workers are so employed do not exceed thirty days in the year.
  2. Work to prevent a dangerous accident, to repair what it has caused, or to avert a certain loss of perishable materials.
  3. Employment to meet an unusual pressure of work.
  4. Eids, seasons, other occasions and seasonal works determined by a decision of the Minister.

  In all of these cases, actual working hours may not exceed ten hours a day or sixty hours a week. The thirty day limit is written inside the first case alone, not across all four.

How these cases sit beside the categories excluded by Article 108 of the Labor Law is set out under working hours exemptions.

Who falls outside Article 98 of the Labor Law on statutory working hours

Article 108 of the Labor Law excludes four categories from the provisions of Articles 98 and 101 of the Labor Law:

• Persons holding high positions of responsibility in management and direction, where those positions give their holders the employer’s authority over the workers.
• Preparatory or complementary works (الأعمال التجهيزية أو التكميلية) that must be completed before work begins or after it ends.
• Work that is necessarily intermittent (متقطعاً بالضرورة).
• Workers assigned to guarding and cleaning, except civil security guards (عمال الحراسة الأمنية المدنية).

The exclusion is limited in the following ways:

• It is an exclusion from Articles 98 and 101 of the Labor Law only. It is not an exclusion from the Labor Law as a whole, nor from the weekly rest in Article 104 of the Labor Law, nor from the provisions on overtime.
• The first category depends on the position giving its holder the employer’s authority over the workers, so a job title alone brings nobody within it.
• Civil security guards are excepted from the exclusion, so they remain within Article 98 of the Labor Law.

Article 23 of the Implementing Regulation (اللائحة التنفيذية) sets replacement limits for two of these categories. For necessarily intermittent work, actual working hours are ten a day, reduced to eight in Ramadan. For workers assigned to guarding and cleaning, they are 12 a day, reduced to ten in Ramadan. In both cases the week may not exceed 48 hours, or 36 in Ramadan for Muslims, and hours beyond those limits are counted as overtime under the text of the Implementing Regulation, which also requires the employer to enable workers to perform their prayers at their times.

The Implementing Regulation adds three further points. Necessarily intermittent work carries a rest of not less than ten consecutive hours in every 24 hours. The time spent on preparatory and complementary works may not exceed thirty minutes in total, added to working hours, with no more than fifteen minutes for each of the two. A cleaning worker falls within the category only where the work does not require more than six consecutive hours of actual work.

Who statutory working hours reach

Article 6 of the Labor Law provides that casual, seasonal and temporary workers (العامل العرضي والموسمي والمؤقت) are subject to the provisions on the maximum working hours, daily rest periods, the weekly rest and overtime, alongside other provisions. Statutory working hours therefore reach seasonal work as they reach permanent employment. How the Labor Law treats each category of worker is set out under employment status.

By contrast, Article 7 of the Labor Law excludes domestic workers and those in their position (العمالة المنزلية ومن في حكمهم) from the Labor Law. The provisions on statutory working hours therefore do not apply to them, and a separate regulation governs them.

What scheduling arrangements leave unchanged in statutory working hours

A schedule is an operational arrangement, and the statutory ceiling sits above it. Shift work and a compressed workweek redistribute hours, but neither relieves an establishment of the provisions on working hours, rest periods, the weekly rest and overtime. The right order is to set the statutory limits first and then draw the schedule inside them. How shifts are allocated among employees is discussed under shift bidding, and a window of shared hours drawn inside the same limits under core hours.

The number of full time hours that an establishment adopts, and on which its full time equivalent (المكافئ للدوام الكامل) is built, is an internal definition that the establishment sets to measure its capacity. It is not the ceiling in Article 98 of the Labor Law. The ceiling is an upper limit that constrains that definition; it does not set it. How a full time equivalent enters a capacity measure is shown under revenue per FTE.

The provisions relied on are those of the Saudi Labor Law as published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Article 6 (casual, seasonal and temporary workers), Article 7 (the exclusion of domestic workers), Article 98 (the two standards and the Ramadan hours), Article 99 (the nine hour and seven hour variations), Article 100 (work by rotation), Article 101 (named only as a provision that Articles 106 and 108 disapply), paragraph (1) of Article 104 (named only as a provision that Article 106 disapplies and that Article 108 leaves in place), Article 102 (rest periods outside actual working hours), Article 106 (the four cases) and Article 108 (the four excluded categories). From the Implementing Regulation, in the edition published by the same Ministry in April 2025: Article 23 (the replacement limits). Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H, in force since 19 February 2025, amended Article 7 of the Labor Law. That decree did not amend Articles 6, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 106 or 108 of the Labor Law, and Article 101 of the Labor Law was last amended by Royal Decree M/46 of 1436H.

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