Digitisation of employment contracts in Saudi Arabia

In this article, we provide a brief summary on the authentication of employment contracts in Saudi Arabia.

Following the amending of the Labour Law in 2015, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) published a template employment contract in 2016 identifying the key provisions for both fixed term contracts and unlimited term contracts.  This template has now been used as the basis for the authenticated contract process through the Mudud portal. The MHRSD is increasingly digitising its procedures and processes requiring employers to engage with it through its portals.  Whilst Qiwa is the interface for electronic contracts the actual authentication is done through Mudud as this is the platform for items related to salary and pay (for example WPS is operated through this platform). 

What does this mean for employees and employers?

Both Saudi national and non-national employees must have their contracts authenticated through Mudud and whilst an employer may add to the automatically generated draft, these additions are limited to around five hundred letters per clause.  Once a contract is generated an employee is sent a link to it to agree or accept it. If an employee rejects the contract, another one can be generated for his acceptance.  After the contract is authenticated it is generated and uploaded to be shared with relevant authorities including, GOSI and MHRSD. Employers are able to see that an employee has authenticated their contract but as yet a copy of the contract is not available on Mudud for the employer to download.