"Occupational safety plan must for firms with more than 49 workers", 2 July 2018

Starting June, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development has begun inspecting companies that employ more than 49 people to ensure their compliance with the National Strategic Program for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). This was announced by Ali Al-Ghamdi, general manager for the development of work environment at the ministry's branch in Makkah province, while addressing representatives of the private sector companies at a workshop held at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. All companies will be required to have an occupational safety policy to organize work... violating any the regulations will result in a fine of SR10,000. There are about 4,000 big companies, 27,000 medium-scale establishments and thousands of smaller firms operating in the Kingdom... [T]he ministry had held an awareness campaign over the past two months to inform the companies about this new OSH system and had organized workshops in different Saudi cities... The current obligatory OSH involves implementing an occupational safety and health strategy. However by the end of this year another framework will be put forward to indicate the technical rules that companies should implement including noise, heat, lighting and personal safety regulations among others... [Al-Ghamdi said] there was an absence of safety systems at local companies and only a few big companies maintained safety standards...