Saudi Arabia’s Health Minister, Tawfik Alrabiya has announced a new patient strategy centre for following up on medical mistakes has been established. The aim is improve procedures in this area. Alrabiya added the Health Ministry is looking to reduce the number of medical mistakes by developing and improving the relevant authorities to help document and treat cases quickly.
The Director General of Saudi Arabia’s General Department of Traffic Director General, Mohammed al-Bassami has announced the female driving ban will be lifted from next month. From 24 June, women will be allowed to drive in the Kingdom. Women over 18 will be allowed to apply for a driver’s licence and women with foreign driving licences will be able to apply for a local one separately following an assessment of their driving ability. Driving schools for women have been set up across five cities in the country. Learner drivers will be taught by men and women, some of whom obtained their licenses abroad.
Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council has refused recommendations to facilitate the purchase of largest share of Aramco by Saudi nationals. The proposal called for 50% of the total number of shares to be allocated to Saudis only to maximise the country’s wealth. Council members refused to support the proposal because the listing of this volume of shares is the largest public listing in terms of financial value and the local market will not be enough to accommodate it. It is therefore important to include foreign investors.
This week the spotlight is on legal and regulatory developments in Saudi Arabia, where according to local media reports, regulations to monitor the use of leisure drones in the Kingdom are being finalised by the Interior Ministry. It comes after a leisure drone caused a security alert around the Royal palaces in the country’s capital, Riyadh. Until they are finalised, leisure drone users will have to get permission from the police before they can fly them.
Elsewhere, the Kingdom’s Municipality and Rural Affairs Ministry has issued the municipal and technical requirements for movies in cinemas as part of the Implementing Regulations for licensing cinemas including independent screening houses and cinemas annexed to shopping malls in the Kingdom. Amongst other things, the requirements state the location needs to be in the urban boundaries of a city, it should be allocated for commercial use and should be on two streets one of which should be a commercial street. They should be at least 100 metres away from petrol stations and gas selling points. They should also be 100 metres away from malls, factories, schools and wedding halls. The entry and exit points should be off the commercial street, car parking should be made available to customers with a ratio of one parking lot for every three seats and entrance and exits of cinemas annexed to shopping malls should be the same as the shopping malls.
Saudi Arabia’s Health Insurance Council has confirmed it is scrapping the individual health insurance system for private sector employees. The Council added employers should provide insurance to employees and their families. This includes spouses, male children under 25 and unmarried daughters. The aim is to transfer responsibility for health insurance from employees to employers, regulate the health insurance market more effectively and eliminate fake insurance.
Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council has asked the Kingdom’s National Anti-Corruption Commission to work with other agencies to tackle the increasing numbers of cases involving government purchase irregularities. It comes as the country has recorded the highest ever number of bribery cases. The call came during the Council’s latest meeting.
This week the spotlight is on employment law developments in Saudi Arabia, where the Kingdom’s Labour and Social Development Minister, Ali Al-Ghafees has announced the Ministry has amended the penalties related to the Labour Law regulations.
Employers will be fined 10,000 Riyals if they violate the holiday entitlement of employees. They will also be fined 10,000 Riyals if they allow a non-Saudi employee to work in a profession other than the one specified in their work permit which is a breach of Article 38 of the Labour Law. In addition, if employers don’t open a file for the firm with the Labour Office or update the firm’s data they will be fined 10,000 Riyals which is a breach of Article 15 of the Labour Law. An employer who fails to submit the Wage Protection file to the Labour Office monthly will be fined 10,000 Riyals. If a firm fails to meet health and occupational safety requirements for its staff, they will be fined 15,000 Riyals. The fine will be doubled for repeat offences. Employers will be fined 2,000 Riyals if they keep an employee’s passport, residency permit or medical insurance card without their consent and 10,000 Riyals for failing to have organisational regulations in place or complying with them. The fine will have to be settled within a month of being issued and if it is not it will be doubled.
Elsewhere the country’s Shoura Council has approved a recommendation for a 40-hour work week. The Council also approved an additional paid day for employees working in activities earmarked for Saudisation. The Council made the decisions last week.
The official spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Cooperative Health Insurance Council, Yaser Almuarik has announced health insurance policies sold by health insurance companies under the C name are for marketing purposes only and are not recognised by the insurance system. He added the system does not permit insurance companies to issue policies with benefits which are less than those in the unified policy recognised by the Council. Companies should issue policies which offer the same services offered by the unified policy and if the service is not available in a certain hospital the patient should be referred to another hospital.
This week the spotlight is on banking and finance and employment developments in Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Scholars member, Abdullah Almutleg, has warned against trading in Bitcoin. He added it is very risky and risky investments are forbidden under Sharia Law. Saudi Arabia is the third Arab country to warn against the use of bitcoins after Palestine and Egypt.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s Human Resources Development Fund, Hadaf has announced it has decided to cover up to 80% of the travel cost of female nationals working in the private sector. The move is part of the Female Workers Transport Support which aims to find solutions for transport challenges faced by female workers when travelling to and from work. Female workers wishing to benefit from this scheme should register on the General Organisation for Social Insurance’s website.
This week the spotlight is on employment and banking and finance developments in Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council has asked the Labour and Social Development Ministry to review Article 77 of the Implementing Regulations to the Labour Law. The aim is to address loopholes to ensure employees are not dismissed unfairly because of Article 77 of the law. The Council also asked the Ministry to review the Saudi Employment Strategy to increase the number of jobs allocated to women and increase their employment chances.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, Tadawul has announced further reforms designed to increase its appeal to investors. The aim is aid the Kingdom’s modernisation, improve market efficiency, boost investor security and access, and market liquidity in the Kingdom. Amongst other changes, the Independent Custody Model is updated to help ease Qualified Foreign Investor market access by providing increased trading limit flexibility for these clients. New procedures will also be introduced to mitigate credit risk associated with the settlement process for all participants. These changes come into force on 21 January 2018. There are also proposed changes to the methods for determining opening and closing prices.
