Saudi employees will be counted under Saudi Arabia’s Nitaqat Saudization programme only if they have no more than five employment contracts registered during the preceding 52 weeks, according to the Qiwa platform under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development.
For an employee to be counted towards Nitaqat, the employment contract must be valid and registered on Qiwa. The employee must also have a registered monthly salary of at least SR4,000 and must not be classified as a part-time employee or student.
Qiwa has also set a separate limit on the issuance of new contracts. A Saudi employee cannot enter into a new employment contract after having more than seven contracts within a 365-day period beginning from the date of the first contract. An eighth contract cannot be issued until a full year has passed from the first contract in the relevant period.
The platform also limits employees to two employment contracts at the same time. Those seeking to take up another job while already holding two contracts must terminate one of the existing contracts before entering into a new employment agreement.
The contract limits form part of the mechanism governing how Saudi employees are counted under Nitaqat, which links employment and contract records registered on Qiwa to companies’ Saudization requirements.
