Shoura Council to discuss draft labor agreement with Indonesia

The Shoura Council is slated to debate the draft agreement with Indonesia on the employment of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia during its two-day sessions from Monday.
The council’s session will be presided over by its Chairman Abdullah Al-Asheikh when the council’s committee on human resources presents its report on the draft agreement on Monday.
In its recommendations, the committee has made relevant amendments to the draft agreement to suit the concerned manpower exporting country’s needs and conditions.
The Kingdom has already signed similar agreements with countries such as India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Indonesia has banned sending housemaids abroad for employment. The draft agreement will also apply to Indonesian workers already deployed in the Kingdom.
Indonesian Embassy spokesman Ahrul Tsani Fathurrahman told Arab News that a labor agreement between the two countries was signed in February last year. “There has been a moratorium on sending of housemaids to the Kingdom since 2011,” he noted, adding that the mission is unaware of a new draft agreement to be discussed by the Shoura Council this week.
Around 1.5 million women, mostly from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Philippines work in Saudi Arabia as domestic workers. They make up less than a quarter of the Kingdom’s eight million foreign workers.
The Indonesian government recently unveiled a set of demands in Jakarta, which included a monthly salary of SR1,700, weekly off on Friday and overtime payment for domestic workers.
According to Shoura Council sources, the proposed agreement aims to strengthen cooperation ties between the two countries in the field of employment of domestic workers to achieve their interests and preserve their sovereignty and guarantee the rights of workers and employers.
During the forthcoming sessions, the council will also table a report from the General Presidency for the Afffairs of the Grand Mosque in Makkah and Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.
While the report of the Ministry of Education is submitted, the incentives for the overseas scholarship will also be discussed.
On Monday, the Shoura Council chairman is scheduled to meet an official delegation headed by Hungarian Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kover at the council’s headquarters here. The visiting delegation will also hold talks with the Riyadh-based Saudi-Hungarian Parliamentary Friendship Committee on the same day.
In January, the Saudi-Hungarian Parliamentary Friendship Committee of the Shoura Council, headed by its Chairman Fayez bin Abdullah Al-Shihri held a meeting with Hungarian Ambassador Ferenc in preparation for the forthcoming visit.