Nursing Hour and Medical Care for the Working Woman

Chapter Nine of the Saudi Labor Law sets the rules on employing women in Articles 149 to 160. Four of these articles have been struck from the text in force, so reading this chapter starts with knowing which of it no longer stands.

This guide covers what Article 153 provides on medical care during pregnancy and childbirth, what Article 154 provides on the nursing hour, and what the Implementing Regulation adds to the second article. The distinction between the body of the Law and the Regulation matters here as much as the rule itself.

1. Four repealed articles in the chapter on employing women

The text in force marks four articles in this chapter (repealed), and its footnotes record the repealing instrument and its date:

• Article 149 and Article 150: repealed by Royal Decree M/5, dated 7/1/1442H.
• Article 152: amended and then repealed after its rule was merged into Article 151, by Royal Decree M/46, dated 5/6/1436H.
• Article 156: amended and then repealed after its rule was merged into Article 155, by Royal Decree M/134, dated 27/11/1440H.

Dates here are Hijri as they appear in the source, and none has been converted to the Gregorian calendar.

The updated text does not republish a repealed article’s wording. So the status of Articles 149 and 150 is clear: they no longer stand. What they used to provide before repeal was not found by this guide from any source, and is not stated here.

What circulates as “the Labor Law bars employing women at night or in hazardous industries” describes the shape of the two repealed articles. The instrument in force today is Article 131 bis, which delegates to the Minister the power to determine hazardous or harmful occupations and the categories barred from them or permitted subject to conditions. The decision issued under it was not found by this guide.

Reading the footnotes shows that Articles 149 and 150 were repealed by Decree M/5, and that Article 131 bis was added by the same decree, on the same date. That much is established across both footnotes together. Whether Article 131 bis carries what the two repealed articles used to carry is a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority.

2. What remains in force in Chapter Nine

After the four repeals, eight articles remain in force in this chapter: 151, 153, 154, 155, 157, 158, 159 and 160. These are the articles this chapter’s rules on employing women rest on.

Article 151 covers maternity leave and is addressed separately, so this guide does not restate its periods. This guide’s subject is what follows the employee’s return to work, not the leave itself.

3. Article 153: medical care during pregnancy and childbirth

Article 153 provides that the employer must provide medical care to the employee during pregnancy and childbirth. That is the article’s rule in full.

The article sets no standard for this care, no ceiling on it, and no mechanism for providing it. It does not refer to the Cooperative Health Insurance system, unlike Article 144 in Chapter Eight, which provides for taking into account what that system covers.

So the article establishes a duty and stops there. The standard of this care, its extent and how it is provided are a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority. As an employer-provided benefit, this duty falls within the broader classification covered in employee benefits accounting.

4. Article 154: the nursing hour in the body of the Law

Article 154 provides that an employee, on returning to work after maternity leave, is entitled to a rest period or periods for the purpose of nursing her child, not exceeding one hour in total per day.

Three features attach to this hour in the text:

• It is in addition to the rest periods granted to all workers.
• It is counted as actual working hours.
• No reduction in pay follows from it.

That is what the body of the Law provides. Everything in the next section comes from the Implementing Regulation, not from Article 154.

5. What Article 31 of the Implementing Regulation adds

To implement Article 154, Article 31 of the Labor Law’s Implementing Regulation provides four things:

• The hour is paid, is counted as actual working hours, and applies for 24 months from the date of childbirth, whether nursing is natural or otherwise.
• It is not counted within the official rest periods granted to all workers, restating the body of the Law’s “in addition to” wording.
• How the hour is taken differs depending on whether a nursery exists within the establishment:
  • Where no nursery exists: she may choose to take the nursing hour at the start or the end of the working day, in a way that fits the interest of the work.
  • Where a nursery exists within the establishment: she may choose a period or periods totaling one hour, in a way that fits the interest of the work.
• On returning from maternity leave, she must notify the employer in writing of the time she sets for the period or periods, and of any subsequent change to it.

6. Why these rules are attributed to the Regulation, not the article

The 24-month time limit and the written notice duty are not in Article 154. They are in Article 31 of the Implementing Regulation. A page that attributes them to “the text of the Labor Law” attributes the rule to the wrong instrument.

The body of the Law and the Regulation are two different instruments, issued and amended by two different routes, and tracking one does not substitute for the other.

7. Nursery facilities in the Regulation, and Article 159

Article 31 of the Regulation conditions how the hour is taken on whether a nursery exists within the establishment. In the same chapter, the first paragraph of Article 159 sets a rule on nursery facilities once 50 or more female employees combine with 10 or more children under 6 years of age.

Whether the nursery meant in Regulation Article 31 is the same nursery required under Article 159 is a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority.

Article 159 is covered in detail in protection from dismissal and iddah leave.

8. Health care in Chapter Eight: a stated duty, detail referred elsewhere

Article 153 is not the only place where the Law states a health duty and refers its detail to another instrument. Chapter Eight has other examples:

• Article 142 requires one or more first-aid cabinets to be prepared, and refers to the Regulation the question of their contents, number, medicine quantities, storage method and the qualifications of whoever is in charge of first aid. Article 29 of the Implementing Regulation implements this with a schedule of quantities. Anyone wanting the list of what the cabinet must be stocked with should refer to the Regulation’s own schedule.
• Article 143 requires the employer to have one or more physicians carry out a comprehensive examination at least once a year for workers exposed to any of the occupational diseases listed in the social-insurance schedules, and to record the examination result in the employer’s registers and in those workers’ files.
• Article 144 requires providing preventive and curative health care at the levels the Minister sets, taking into account what the Cooperative Health Insurance system provides. The decision setting these levels was not found by this guide.

The pattern is the same across these provisions and Article 153: the Law states the duty, and its detail sits in the Regulation or in a ministerial decision. Relying on the body of the Law alone establishes the duty without its extent.

9. These articles are not part of the 2025 amendments

Royal Decree M/44, in force since 19 February 2025, did not touch any article between 121 and 167 except Article 151 alone. This is established across two official sources together: the updated text’s footnotes on one hand, and the comparative amendments table issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on the other, and neither records a change to any other article within this range.

So saying the 2025 amendments changed the rules on employing women is a claim neither source supports. What actually changed in this chapter is the repeals covered in section 1, dated 1442H, 1440H and 1436H.

As for Articles 153 and 154 and whether a more recent instrument amended them, this guide found no explicit case of amendment, so neither claim should be asserted; refer to the updated regulatory text on that point.

10. What the text does not address

• The standard of medical care in Article 153, its extent and the mechanism for providing it, is a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority.
• What Articles 149 and 150 used to provide before repeal. This guide did not find it from any source, and does not infer it. It is a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority.
• The ministerial decision issued under Article 131 bis on hazardous or harmful occupations and the barred categories. This guide did not find it. Its content is a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority.
• The levels the Minister sets under Article 144. This guide did not find them. Setting them is a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority.
• Whether the nursery in Regulation Article 31 is the nursery in Article 159 is a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority.
• The penalties for violating these articles. The schedule of violations and penalties was not read for this guide, and no amount is stated here. The penalty in force is a matter for the regulatory text and the competent authority.

11. What your system should record

• The end date of maternity leave for each employee, since Article 154 conditions entitlement on returning to work after it.
• The date of childbirth, since the 24-month period in Regulation Article 31 is calculated from it.
• The written notice of the chosen time for the period or periods, its date and any later change, since this is a fact worth adding to the record.
• Whether a nursery exists within the establishment, since how the hour is taken differs by this in the Regulation’s text.
• The hour counted within actual working hours in the attendance record, not deducted from it and not from the general rest periods, on the same paid-time logic that payroll accrual applies to earned-but-unpaid entitlements.
• The result of the annual comprehensive examination under Article 143, in both the registers and the employee’s file, as the article requires in both places.

12. Checklist

• Does your policy state one hour a day in addition to general rest periods, or within them?
• Is the hour counted as actual working hours without a reduction in pay?
• Does your policy attribute the 24-month period to the Implementing Regulation, or to Article 154?
• Does the record hold the date of childbirth for each employee, since it is the base date for the period?
• Is the written notice of the chosen time requested, kept and updated when it changes?
• Does your policy distinguish between an establishment with a nursery and one without?
• Does your policy still refer to Article 149, Article 150, Article 152 or Article 156?

13. Why this turns into a problem

Some of these articles state the duty in the body of the Law and leave its amount to another instrument: Article 153 states medical care without a standard, Article 154 states an hour without stating how it interacts with everything else in the day, and Article 142 states a cabinet without its contents. These provisions are completed by the Implementing Regulation or by a ministerial decision.

As a result, an internal policy written from the body of the Law alone is incomplete rather than wrong, and one written from a secondary source risks carrying the text of a repealed article. Both show up at the first review.

What stays the same throughout is a set of facts worth recording: a date of childbirth, a date of return, a written notice, and an hour that sits inside the attendance record rather than outside it.

This is where having every employee fact in one file earns its keep. That is what Qoyod HR provides: a single employee file holding the contract, documents and their expiry dates with advance alerts, an attendance record for every employee, and their leave, salary and end-of-service dues. End-of-service, overtime and leave-balance calculations are built into the system. It is a standalone HR system on its own subscription, and the connection to Qoyod Accounting is now available.

For the working hours and rest periods the nursing hour sits in addition to, see working hours and weekly rest. For other leave entitlements in the same period of an employee’s service, see sick leave and occasion leaves, the annual leave balance and compensatory rest. To track a leave balance directly, use the leave balance calculator.

For more guides and templates, browse the HR resource center.

Frequently asked questions

How long is the nursing hour under the Saudi Labor Law?

Article 154 entitles an employee, on returning to work after maternity leave, to a rest period or periods for the purpose of nursing her child, not exceeding one hour in total per day, in addition to the rest periods granted to all workers.

Is the nursing hour deducted from pay?

Article 154 states that this period is counted as actual working hours, and that it results in no reduction in pay. Article 31 of the Implementing Regulation restates that it is paid.

For how long is the nursing hour available?

For 24 months from the date of childbirth, whether nursing is natural or otherwise. This limit is set in Article 31 of the Implementing Regulation, not in Article 154 itself.

Who sets the timing of the nursing hour?

Article 31 of the Implementing Regulation provides that the employee chooses the time in a way that fits the interest of the work: at the start or end of the working day where no nursery exists, or a period or periods totaling one hour where a nursery exists within the establishment. She must notify the employer in writing of what she sets and of any change to it.

What does Article 153 of the Labor Law provide?

Article 153 requires the employer to provide medical care to the employee during pregnancy and childbirth. The article sets no standard for this care, no ceiling on it and no mechanism for providing it, and does not refer to the Cooperative Health Insurance system.

Did the 2025 amendments change the rules on employing women?

Royal Decree M/44, in force since 19 February 2025, did not touch any article between 121 and 167 except Article 151 alone, per both the updated text’s footnotes and the comparative amendments table. The actual change in the chapter on employing women is the repeal of Articles 149, 150, 152 and 156, dated 1442H, 1440H and 1436H.

Regulatory references

This guide is based on the Saudi Labor Law issued by Royal Decree M/51 dated 23/8/1426H, in its updated text: Article 142 (first-aid cabinet), Article 143 (comprehensive medical examination), Article 144 (preventive and curative health care), Article 153 (medical care during pregnancy and childbirth), Article 154 (the nursing hour), Article 159 (nursery facilities) and Article 131 bis (the Minister’s delegated power on hazardous occupations). It refers to Articles 149, 150, 152 and 156 as repealed, and to Article 151 for reference rather than detail.

From the Labor Law’s Implementing Regulation, issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Article 29 (contents of the first-aid cabinet) and Article 31 (rules on the nursing hour). Both are attributed in this guide to the Regulation, not to the body of the Law.

On the effect of the amendments made by Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H, in force since 19 February 2025: this guide did not find an amendment by it to any article between 121 and 167 other than Article 151. As for Articles 153 and 154 and whether a more recent instrument amended them, this guide found no explicit case of amendment, so neither claim should be asserted; refer to the updated regulatory text on that point.

This guide is regulatory explanation, not legal advice. In an active dispute or a specific case, the regulatory text and the competent authority remain the reference.