The Ministry of Labour is currently targeting expatriates in Saudi Arabia that are working for businesses other than their visa sponsors. Construction contractors, both local and international, have traditionally employed large numbers of such workers and many are now trying to rectify the status of their workers before the current 3-month grace period expires. Failure to do so risks deportation for workers and fines for businesses. This article poses the question, who bears the risk of these events on individual construction projects the contractor or the employer / client?
In response to the current Ministry of Labour actions, huge numbers of workers are said to be planning to leave the Kingdom (estimated to be between 50,000 and 500,000 expatriates). This will have an inevitable impact on the construction projects that they were working on and the construction contractors they were working for. In particular, rate of progress will be affected by the loss of productive workers that leave the Kingdom and perhaps an inability to replace those workers as quickly as is needed. In addition, significant costs are likely to be incurred, such as increased direct costs due to lost productivity and from fees to rectify workers visa status, along with increased indirect costs arising from prolongation.
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