JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Jaad Ameen Jaad is used to deadline pressure. He builds hotels and operates his family-owned Crom Hotels & Resorts International in the highly competitive tourism industry. However, next month Jaad faces a different kind of deadline under the Nitaqat nationalization program that may force him to employ Saudis without qualifications.
In May, the Ministry of Labor launched Nitaqat — literally meaning “layers” or “ranges” in classical Arabic — to do what Saudization could not: increase the number of Saudis in the workforce.
The Saudization program required an across-the-board hiring system to increase employment of locals to 30%, but never exceeded a third of its goal. Nitaqat features a more nuanced system. There are 164 different quotas based on the performance of individual businesses that must employ a certain percentage of Saudis according to the size of their workforce and the type of services. On September 10, Saudi companies must demonstrate they have met the quotas.
Jaad says the deadline for compliance is unrealistic.
“The time given to us by the Ministry of Labor is too short for us to organize our needs,” he told The Media Line. “It takes a long time to transfer iqamas [work permits] or even bring in new employees from abroad, especially during Ramadan. What’s worse is that the ministry is considering Ramadan as part of the time allocated for us to finish this business. They work only 24 days in the month and their working hours are very short.”
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