Men, women found working together in female shops

The joint inspection campaigns which were carried out by the Ministries of Labor, Interior and Commerce and Industry in a number of shops in Riyadh recorded 77 cases of violation, with men and women working together at female-only shops being the most prominent of them. The offending shops did not separate the departments of male and female shop assistants, according to the Ministry of Labor.
These campaigns were carried out last weekend with the participation of 20 inspectors from the Labor Office in Riyadh, 15 policemen and a number of inspectors of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Sixty-six violations were detected following the inspection of several stores selling products for use by women which violated the requirements of the women's work environment. The rest of the violations came as result of employers' ignorance to transfer their expat workers' sponsorship according to the labor laws in the Kingdom.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Labor, Tayseer Al-Mufrej, said that all female shops must separate the work area between male and female shop assistants as the labor regulations ban the presence of men at female areas at stores. He confirmed that ongoing inspection campaigns will be conducted weekly covering all cosmetic units without exception, according to a local daily.
The Ministry of Labor said earlier that it will take punitive actions against offenders of the female shops' requirements. The punitive procedures would be gradual, from advice to written warnings to fines. However, the Ministry of Labor will halt all its services to offenders who ignore these gradual punitive steps, while the authorities may shut down these stores as the last stage of warnings. The authorities have to date shut down 27 women's stores in the Eastern Province for these kinds of violations.
During the most recent inspection rounds, labor inspectors have used a new database mechanism to monitor employers and shop owners, and which shows any former violations of the shop to the concerned authorities at the time of the inspection.
The smart inspection system can monitor irregularities automatically and immediately through special tablets.