In response to warnings issued by lawmakers, the Union of Cooperative Societies has been ordered to stop hiring expatriate workers.
Earlier MP Safa’a Al-Hashem had apparently sent a warning to the Minister of Social Affairs, Saad Al-Kharraz, saying: “If I [come to] know that you are still opening the door for the recruitment of workers from a certain Arab country in the cooperative societies, I will file a grilling notion against you in parliament.”
On 15 September, the Minister of Social Affairs Saad Al-Kharraz had warned the Union of Cooperative Societies against hiring workers from an Arab country, and on 25 September the minister issued a decision to stop issuing work permits for migrant workers in cooperative societies and to implement the replacement policy.
Undersecretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs Abdulaziz Shuaib also issued instructions to the Public Authority for Manpower not to issue work permits for migrant workers to work in cooperative societies until further notice.
Shuaib explained the request comes out of the ministry’s keenness to implement and follow up the policy of replacing expatriate workers with national labor in cooperative societies and provide all means of support for national labor in implementation of the replacement policy.
