Human resources specialist Hisham Al-Sulaimani highlighted cases of assignment of employees by their managers to perform work outside official working hours, and said that directives of the work system were explicit in this regard that the employee assigned outside working hours be held accountable by an hour and a half for each hour. And that the manager is responsible for what happens from the employee whom he chose to do the work on his behalf on his leave in the event of a problem, so the manager bears the consequences, and therefore he must choose the competent employee to perform his duties on his official or annual leave.
Al-Suleimani told Okaz that the Saudi labor system stipulates that the official working hours per week are 48 hours, at an average of eight hours per day for six days. It was noted that some companies assign their employees to work nine hours, with the leave being on Friday and Saturday, some make Saturday a half-time or full-time, and some make the leave on Friday only, and some establishments in the private sector assign some or all of the employees to work after hours. Working or working on vacation due to the need for work, indicating that there are official holidays such as holidays or the National Day and the anniversary of the founding day, but some sectors work due to necessity, such as hospitals, even with a capacity of less than 100%. Al-Sulaimani explained that in this case, coordination takes place by assigning some employees to a specific time or certain days, provided that they are compensated with subsequent vacation days that are equal to the overtime wage, and the assignment must be at the heart of the facility’s service.
Al-Suleimani added that some establishments may need to assign some to work shifts or late hours, such as security, or controlling employees’ hours. In any case, assigning employees to work outside working hours must serve the work, indicating that some managers may assign his deputy or assistant to perform his work when he is absent on leave. Or his presence due to need and necessity, especially in some sectors such as the medical or industrial sectors and others.
