6% of foreign employees reported absent in 2012

More than 400,000 men and women, around 6 percent of the total workforce, were reported absent from work in 2012, according to the Ministry of Labor.
There were 224,000 foreign workers who obtained exit and re-entry visas and who remained in their countries, equivalent to 59.7 percent of the total number of absentees, a Labor Ministry source said.
The Labor Office in Riyadh province has registered the highest number of absentees. Some 60,000 employees were reported absent within the Kingdom, while another 70,000 employees were absent and abroad on an exit and re-entry visa, he said.
According to the source, Makkah province ranked second after Riyadh province in the number of inland absence cases, at 30,000 compared to 20,000 cases in the Eastern Province.
The number of foreign employees on exit and re-entry visa who failed to return and report to work reached 60,000 and 40,000 in the Eastern Province and Makkah respectively, the source said.
Qasim province had 15,000 inland absence cases and another 10,000 cases of individuals who failed to return to work from their home countries.
Asir province registered 10,000 inland foreign worker absence cases, while another 10,000 cases reported absent were abroad.
Madinah, Hail, Najran, Jouf, Jazan and the Northern Border provinces registered a high number of absentee cases of foreign workers, the report said.