Legal Regulation of Overtime in Saudi Arabia Research Paper

Legal Regulation of Overtime in Saudi Arabia - Research Paper Example In addition to the law, Ministerial Resolutions are used to supplement the KSA Labor Law. This research focuses on how overtime is regulated and calculated in Saudi Arabia. The Labor Regulation, which is the Royal Decree No. M/51 of 23rd Shaban 1426 Hejra  or 27th September 2005 is the main statute the deals with issues relating to labor. According to the Saudilegal.com website (20150, this law came into force in 2006, thereby overriding the then existing Labor and Workmen Regulation. The Labor Regulation is thus used to guide employer-employee relations, including matters relating to overtime. Under the KSA Labor Law, Article 98 states that if an employer uses the daily work criterion, a worker is not supposed to work for over eight hours in a day. For employers who use the weekly criterion, the law limits the workers to work for not more than forty eight hours in a week. In addition, during the holy month of Ramadan, the working hours for Muslim workers are reduced to not more than six hours in a day or for not more than thirty six hours in a week. Other employees who belong to different religions are not affected during the month of Ramadan. If the employer requests his employers to work hours beyond these limits, then the additional workers hours are deemed to be overtime. The employers are then required to pay their workers for these additional hours. Overtime is usually restricted to only two hours per day (L&E Global, 3). This means that an employee should not be asked by his employer to work for more than ten hours in a single day. Article 99 of the Labor Law provides that the labor minister can change the total number of working hours described in article 98. These hours may be increased from eight to nine hours in a day for certain types of workers or industries. This may be done in cases where the worker is not required to work continuously. In addition, the