Saudi Arabia to launch next phase of wage protection program in Feb.

Saudi Arabia’s ministry of labor will begin implementing the 13th phase of its wage protection scheme starting Feb. 1, as part of its efforts to ensure the regular payment of worker dues.

The new phase will include 14,000 entities, employing a total of 477,402 workers, or 30-39 workers each, the ministry spokesman, Khaled Aba Al-Khail, said.

The system is aimed at monitoring the disbursement of wages for all workers in the private sector—both Saudis and expatriates--and was first introduced in in the Kingdom for all companies with over 3,000 employees in September 2013.