Fire expats first says Saudi gov't

FOREIGNERS FIRST: Expatriates in Saudi should be made redundant to ensure locals remain employed. (Getty Images)

Companies operating in Saudi Arabia have been told by government officials to fire expatriates before axing locals if lay offs are necessary, it was reported Saturday.

The report comes after Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and Microsoft Saudi Arabia announced plans to downsize.

Several other companies are expected to follow suit in the weeks and months ahead as the credit crunch worsens, according to Saudi daily Saudi Gazette.

Muhammad Al Hamdan, head of the Labour Office in the Eastern Province said labour office inspectors had started investigating companies believed to have fired Saudi staff because of the credit crunch.

Businesses were not allowed to axe nationals but had to retain them by transferring them in to other jobs in the firm, made available by firing expatriate staff, he added.

Officials had already visited major companies like SABIC – whose profits plunged 95 percent last year as a result of the global slowdown – to ascertain that the Saudisation process was intact.

As yet, nothing has been documented about Saudis being fired, Al Hamdan said.

According to the ministry the unemployment rate among Saudis (men and women) stands at 5.4 percent, but government data shows it is closer to 11 percent.

Last week at the Arab economic summit in Kuwait it was announced that the Arab world lost as much as $2.5 trillion in the past four months because of the global meltdown

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READERS' COMMENTS

Let's give it a try, please
Posted by antoine, Dubai, UAE on Thursday 29 January 2009 at 09:25 UAE time


I think they should go on with it immediately, so the other GCCs could instantly see the would-be effects...then decide if such an idea is feasible in their own countries.

bad idea
Posted by david on Wednesday 28 January 2009 at 16:14 UAE time


Honestly speaking, the day expats leaves the place, they will have to shutdown all plants and file bankruptcy. Without expats its hard for locals to carry techjobs and manual jobs as well.

Good Idea But....
Posted by Eric the Red, Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 28 January 2009 at 09:56 UAE time


You first need to have people who are able or willing to do all the jobs undertaken by the expat workers EG: Working all day in August on building site with re-bar, digging sewage trenches or unloading bags of cement...!

As I said this is a nice idea but won't work, the furor from the PC squad in the UK if Mr Brown made a similar statement would be unbelievable.

Fire Expats first........
Posted by Phil Grange, Dubai on Tuesday 27 January 2009 at 22:30 UAE time


apart from a very few Expat occupied jobs, there is a Saudi parallel for every Expat position........ quite ludicrous, though the good intent was there. The Saudi will learn the job and eventually replace the expat..... yeah right! In many cases this is the ideal situation for the Saudi to become incredibly lazy, And when the government steps in and Saudi-izes the position, all of a sudden we have Expat "Advisers" and "Consultants". Rant over...... the need to train, educate and prepare Saudis for work is a given, the need to cut costs and lessen the amount of money being remitted out of the country is a given. To damage productivity and efficiency without due regard is, as has been stated previously, foolish and short-sighted.

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