°µÍø½ûÇø

Look, to make it clear to you, as per the laws of Saudi Arabia, you are NOT an employee.  You won't have an Iqama, your salary will not be paid in Saudi through WPS and as such, you are not eligible for end of service.  All of these require you to have an Iqama and be registered as employee in MOHRE and GOSI.   

Now assuming that the company is a decent company and will treat you like an employee, they don't actually need to have a contract in Arabic - as if you have a falling out with them, you have no legal rights.......so why bother.

As far as the law is concerned, without an Iqama, the only way to ensure your rights is:

1) Contract should reflect that you are being engaged for a consultancy assignment i.e. it is a service contract and NOT an employment contract. Period.  Detail all benefits due to you as per the terms of this assignment e.g. you are not entitled to EOSB but you can reflect the calculation and say that is a bonus on contract completion etc
2)   Be aware that in such contracts, any payment is subject to withholding tax

Hi

Thanks for the clarification!

OK but then I still don't fully understand. If I'm not an employee, then is the contract invalid?
It doesn't say anything about consultancy, it's a standard employment contract text (fixed length, 2 years) for °µÍø½ûÇøs.
However, I don't have Iqma, work permit or anything else from Saudi Government.

Also the contract says that I don't have the right to terminate it before expiry, and if I do, I need to pay penalties as per Article 77.

But if I'm not an employee then how does this apply to me?  Besides, I'm not in Saudi, this is a remote work. So how can they or myself enforce anything the contract says?
If I understand you correctly, then I couldn't  enforce any regulation of the contract, because I don't have legal rights since I'm not a real employee, So basically none of the Saudi laws apply to me? If they fire me without valid reason, I have no protection?


Thanks in advance!

tomgmu wrote:

Hi

Thanks for the clarification!

OK but then I still don't fully understand. If I'm not an employee, then is the contract invalid?
It doesn't say anything about consultancy, it's a standard employment contract text (fixed length, 2 years) for °µÍø½ûÇøs.
However, I don't have Iqma, work permit or anything else from Saudi Government.

Also the contract says that I don't have the right to terminate it before expiry, and if I do, I need to pay penalties as per Article 77.

But if I'm not an employee then how does this apply to me?  Besides, I'm not in Saudi, this is a remote work. So how can they or myself enforce anything the contract says?
If I understand you correctly, then I couldn't  enforce any regulation of the contract, because I don't have legal rights since I'm not a real employee, So basically none of the Saudi laws apply to me? If they fire me without valid reason, I have no protection?


Thanks in advance!

one question, did your contract mention anything with references of saudi labor law articles ??
if yes then it is ok and ask them to mention EOSB will be as per saudi Labor law as well then you can claim all rights.

Yes it mentions those. EOSB is not mentioned.
But then what about what XTang says??

If I'm not registered with Saudi government, don't have a visa or work permit, then how does Saudi labour law apply to me?

Can they take legal actions against me if I terminate this contract?
Can i take legal action if they just fire me without a valid reason?

tomgmu wrote:

Yes it mentions those. EOSB is not mentioned.
But then what about what XTang says??

If I'm not registered with Saudi government, don't have a visa or work permit, then how does Saudi labour law apply to me?

Can they take legal actions against me if I terminate this contract?
Can i take legal action if they just fire me without a valid reason?

Considering these things always pull you back instead of moving forward, you mentioned its a reliable company and you have check the company details, so trust on Allah and continue.

Now if you still want to talk about your fears if they fired you before contract then it could be happen even here, and if you will break the contract obviously you will face consequences also. In both cases company always have upper hand because they have resources and professional legal team, So they can do all kind of actions legally even you are here or in your home land. But do you think you have that much time and energy and money to fight in case something goes wrong.

So brotherly advice continue working without any fear and keep good relation with your contact person and keep asking them to invite you here in Saudi, Due to Covid restriction if you can travel to Saudi Arabia by any other country calculate the cost and give them suggestion and later or sooner they will bring you here. else who would not like to work from home with Saudi Salary Package in home land .

I don't know why you are confused.

A "civil" contract is legally binding in your case.  In case of any dispute, civil or commercial laws will apply.

An "employment" contract is NOT legally binding in your case - you don't have Iqama or even a work visa.   Labor law does not apply.  This goes both ways.   By the way,  even for people who have a work visa, if Iqama is not provided within 90 days, the contract is considered null and void and they can transfer without employer consent.

So you need to set your contract in a way that the rights and obligations of both parties are clearly spelled out - make a simple civil/commercial contract e.g. a rental contract.  Legal actions can always be taken if the contract is set out in the right way.

Having said that, you can choose to sign the contract as-is.  If there is any dispute, for example, you stop working and they file a case against you for contract violation in Saudi courts, it will be thrown out because you will cite labor law that they needed to provide you with Iqama etc etc. and they will end up getting fined plus GAZT will jump on their head for not paying WHT.  The other way round, they fire you, you file a case asking for compensation as a "deemed" employee; they can have it delayed or thrown out citing a number of reasons.  So in an as-is state, it is a lose-lose proposition for both of you.   And let's be academic, worst case, they file and win a case against you (Which isn't possible in this situation but lets humor ourselves), the judgement of a Saudi court cannot be enforced in your home country at all.  So just forget about these worries from employer end.

tomgmu wrote:

Hi

I received a contract from a Saudi company. The company exists and is real, already verified that.

The contract is about remote work, so I won't move to Saudi.

This contract sounds a like a normal employment contract, it is based on Saudi law (makes many references to it).

However, it doesn't have an Arabic version. It's only available in English, even though the contract explicitly says that the English version is only for guidance.

My question is: is this contract valid and legally binding? As far as I know, it should have an Arabic version too. In fact, the original plan was to move to Saudi and back then they sent me a contract which had both Arabic and English text.
But then we changed the plan to use remote work instead, so they sent me another contract, and this one is only English.

But other than that, it sounds like a normal employment contract foreigners receive.  So is this valid or not?

I don't even have Saudi visa or work permit or any other paper, since I'm not supposed to move there.

Thanks in advance!

Hi there ,

To render your service to the company in saudia,you need to enter into an international service agreement,  you being the service provider and the company as customer with the terms and conditions that you agree to work for monthly or lumpsum price.

Company can enter into employment agreement only if you are inside saudi and always the contracts are bilingual.

tomgmu wrote:

Hi

I received a contract from a Saudi company. The company exists and is real, already verified that.

The contract is about remote work, so I won't move to Saudi.

This contract sounds a like a normal employment contract, it is based on Saudi law (makes many references to it).

However, it doesn't have an Arabic version. It's only available in English, even though the contract explicitly says that the English version is only for guidance.

My question is: is this contract valid and legally binding? As far as I know, it should have an Arabic version too. In fact, the original plan was to move to Saudi and back then they sent me a contract which had both Arabic and English text.
But then we changed the plan to use remote work instead, so they sent me another contract, and this one is only English.

But other than that, it sounds like a normal employment contract foreigners receive.  So is this valid or not?

I don't even have Saudi visa or work permit or any other paper, since I'm not supposed to move there.

Thanks in advance!

More you think more you get confused, is there any harm to give it a try for a month ?
in a month you can make good relation with HR , ask them your queries and have thier official feed back by emails, ask them for overseas work from home employee policy as well.
Just start and give it a try and do share  your experience

I am doing remote work for a Saudi company for 2 months already. The contract was English only as in your case. I am working from home from Europe. And they paid me according to the contract with no delay. Everything went smooth: communication, electronic signatures, deliverables over internet and VPN, payments to my account.

Hi

So thanks to your information, I was able to terminate this contract.
First they said that if I quit, I have to pay various penalties according to Saudi labour law.
However when I showed them the labour law article you cited here they just disappeared.
They won't reply to any email, which is fine with me, but unfortunately they still owe me my last salary which they never paid.

Is there any way for me to get this money?

I mean, it seems to me that they tricked me into this contract. We signed a fake contract. And beyond that, they failed to produce any of the things the labour law requires,.
Is this not a crime in Saudi? They sent me a contract which wasn't even valid and I worked for them without work permit, Iqama etc.

So is there anything I can do to sort this out somehow? All I want is my last salary which had nor right to not pay. I worked full time the last month!

Thanks in advance!

XTang wrote:

I don't know why you are confused.

A "civil" contract is legally binding in your case.  In case of any dispute, civil or commercial laws will apply.

An "employment" contract is NOT legally binding in your case - you don't have Iqama or even a work visa.   Labor law does not apply.  This goes both ways.   By the way,  even for people who have a work visa, if Iqama is not provided within 90 days, the contract is considered null and void and they can transfer without employer consent.

So you need to set your contract in a way that the rights and obligations of both parties are clearly spelled out - make a simple civil/commercial contract e.g. a rental contract.  Legal actions can always be taken if the contract is set out in the right way.

Having said that, you can choose to sign the contract as-is.  If there is any dispute, for example, you stop working and they file a case against you for contract violation in Saudi courts, it will be thrown out because you will cite labor law that they needed to provide you with Iqama etc etc. and they will end up getting fined plus GAZT will jump on their head for not paying WHT.  The other way round, they fire you, you file a case asking for compensation as a "deemed" employee; they can have it delayed or thrown out citing a number of reasons.  So in an as-is state, it is a lose-lose proposition for both of you.   And let's be academic, worst case, they file and win a case against you (Which isn't possible in this situation but lets humor ourselves), the judgement of a Saudi court cannot be enforced in your home country at all.  So just forget about these worries from employer end.

Hi, please see my previous message. I forgot  to quote your post in that one sorry, but my question is a follow up to this conversation.