Post edited 10:52 pm – January 3, 2012 by admin

by:Tammy L. Sulit, RN

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest importers of medical professionals from our country. Thousands of Filipinos are deployed in KSA yearly and a lot more have been reliant on both public and private companies and institutions in Saudi for years. When the dispute about Saudization came up, a lot of Filipino workers in Saudi as well as aspiring OFW’s were concerned about its effect to the employment of labor force from the Philippines. Can it further diminish the chances of Filipinos to work abroad?

Saudization or the Saudi Nationalization Scheme (Nitaqat system) is the recent law implemented in Saudi that compels institutions and enterprises to fill-up their labor force with Saudi nationals. This started last September 11, 2011.Under this policy, their citizens should be prioritized in a percentage of a company’s labor force before they add foreign workers. This is their response to solve the unemployment problem of their kingdom. Moreover, it is a great leap for their citizens including women and youth to gain employment participation. Companies which fail to comply with the said policy will not be allowed to apply for new, replacement or seasonal visa for their foreign workers nor can they change their foreign workers’ profession. They cannot also file an application to open new enterprises or branches. This in turn will inhibit them to hire foreign employees thus decreasing job offers in our country. On the upside, enterprises which are able to fulfill the said requirement can hire more foreign employees.

The implementation of Saudization can cause disruption in the normal employment system in our country especially if KSA continues to pursue this policy. It puts employment in a temporary unstable state. Since KSA is a prime importer of nurses, local agencies in the Philippines which recruit nurses have opportunity depletion to send out more workers. However unlike what a lot of people fear, this system won’t result to massive, short-term displacement of OFW’s. Workers, who are employed on companies that are not compliant to the policy and yet have exceeded 6 years of stay in KSA, can still be hired by compliant companies without the permission of their employers.

The Department of Labor and Employment of the Philippines(DOLE) has taken measures to provide immediate assistance to OFW’s affected by this phenomenon. It has created an online registration system to put up a database which consist accurate information of the workers affected by Saudization. Moreover, DOLE also made an on-site re-employment assistance which helps transfer affected workers to compliant companies, and reintegration assistance for returning OFW’s.

The Saudi Nationalization Scheme is a huge threat to nurses, but then the National government has been taking steps to guard the welfare of its people. This at least gives nurses and nurse applicants lesser worries.

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