Legal Developments

Potential hourly wage system

The Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MOL) is discussing a potential new employment system for Saudi employees named “Flexible Work” (Flexible Work). Flexible Work will be a system whereby an employee may be paid an hourly wage on a weekly basis in arrears, and various entitlements currently required under the Labor Law for conventional employees would not be required, such as:

1 Legal Developments

1.1 New Saudization Rules Proposed

Saudization is the colloquial term used to refer to Saudi Arabia’s official government policy of encouraging the employment of Saudi Arabian nationals in the private sector. The policy of Saudization is enforced and implemented through several programs and regulations in Saudi Arabia, including the Nitaqat Program.

In the world of private equity, vast sums of money are raised by private investors who pool their money into collective funds in order to acquire companies, i.e., a “portfolio company”, with the goal of eventually flipping the portfolio company at a significant profit. Sometimes, however, that bet goes wrong, and the portfolio company is sold at a loss or, worse, liquidated in bankruptcy.