By Mohammed Al-Abdullah

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

DAMMAM — The National Recruitment Committee in the Saudi Council of Chambers is determined to take steps against the adamance of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development to go ahead with its decision to implement a new unified recruitment contract for hiring female household workers from abroad.

The contract was unanimously rejected by all recruitment offices in the Kingdom, industry sources said.

They have said the National Recruitment Committee, the chambers of commerce and industry and various recruitment offices are considering measures they can resort to, as the ministry has been persistent in ignoring their demands to amend certain articles of new the contract.

The sources said the committee was closely watching the response of the ministry to their demands during the past week, especially that there were great efforts being exerted to convince the ministry to have a second look at the new contract.

The sources did not elaborate on what the committee would do if the ministry continued to insist on implementing the contract but said the actions mulled by the recruitment companies would revealed by next week.

The recruitment offices have been opposing a clause in the contract that fixed a fine of about 30 percent of the value of the contract in case the arrival of the housemaid in the Kingdom was delayed for 90 days or beyond. Previously, the fine was only 15 percent of the contract value.

The sources refused to reveal the steps that the committee would take so as to be flexible in their approach and give more time to the ministry to consider amending the conditions in the unified contract.

They said the recruitment offices were hoping that the ministry would delay the implementation of the new contract especially after their meeting in July during which a joint task force was constituted to revise the terms of the contract.

The sources said the ministry surprised the recruitment offices by unilaterally implementing the unified contract without waiting for the task force to come up with its recommendations.