Saudi Labour Law Amendments 2025: What Employers Must Change

The Saudi Labour Law changed on 19 February 2025. Royal Decree No. M/44 of 8 Safar 1446H approved amendments to it, and they took effect on 20 Sha'ban 1446H, which is 19 February 2025. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) published new Implementing Regulations the same day. Contracts, probation clauses, notice letters and leave policies written before that date need checking against the new text.

In short: probation now has a single ceiling of 180 days, with the Eid, National Day and Founding Day holidays and sick leave left out of the count. On an indefinite contract paid monthly, the employee must give at least 30 days' written notice and the employer at least 60. A resignation is deemed accepted if the employer has not replied within 30 days, and acceptance can be postponed by up to 60 days only with written reasons (Article 79 bis). Maternity leave rises from ten weeks to twelve, the death of a brother or sister now carries three days' paid leave, and a new father's three days must be taken within seven days of the birth. Overtime can be compensated with paid time off if the employee agrees. Every employer needs a training policy for its Saudi staff, and must provide housing and transport or pay an allowance in their place.

This guide is for employers and HR teams. It describes the law as MHRSD publishes it; where a contract or a dispute turns on the wording, confirm it with MHRSD or a lawyer.

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What was amended, and when

The new articles are 79 bis, on resignation, and 229 bis, a penalty; the seven repealed articles are all in the labour inspection chapter. This guide concentrates on what changes an employer's contracts, policies and payroll.

In the table below, "before" is the wording in force immediately before M/44, as the Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers shows it in each article's amendment history; "now" is the current text on MHRSD's consolidated Labour Law pages.

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The changes at a glance

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Contracts: one year by default, documented, on the Ministry's model

Article 37. A non-Saudi's contract must still be written and fixed-term. Where it states no term, the term is now one year from the date the worker actually started, renewed for the same period if work continues; before, the work permit's term was taken as the contract's. Article 12 of the Implementing Regulations adds that a non-Saudi's contract stays fixed-term however long it runs or however often it is renewed, and never becomes indefinite, even if both parties agree that it should.

Articles 51 and 52. The contract must now also be documented under the relevant rules and the Regulations. Article 18 of the Regulations adopts the model contracts in Annex 5 and requires employers to document their employees' contracts electronically on the platform the Ministry approves. Article 52 calls for a model for each type of contract, whose basic contents now include each party's rights and basic obligations.

Article 61. Three duties were added:

• Not to do anything that cancels or weakens equal opportunity or treatment in employment, by excluding, distinguishing or preferring applicants or workers on the basis of race, colour, sex, age, disability, marital status or any other form of discrimination.
• To provide suitable housing for its workers, or pay a suitable cash allowance with the wage instead.
• To provide suitable transport between the workers' housing and the workplace, or pay a suitable cash allowance with the wage instead.

The law sets no figure for either allowance.

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Probation: one ceiling of 180 days

Before the amendment, Article 53 allowed up to 90 days' probation, extendable by written agreement to 180, already left the two Eid holidays and sick leave out of the count, and let a contract give the right to end the contract during probation to one party only. Now probation must be stated expressly in the contract with its length set out clearly, may not exceed 180 days in total, and either party may end the contract within it. Article 19 of the Regulations adds:

• The period may be divided into several periods, provided they run consecutively and the division is stated clearly when the contract is signed.
• The Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha holidays, the National Day and Founding Day holidays, and sick leave do not count towards it.

Article 54, not amended, still allows probation only once with the same employer, with narrow exceptions, and no compensation or end-of-service award is due if the contract ends during it.

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Notice periods: 30 days from the employee, 60 from the employer

Article 75 governs ending an indefinite contract for a legitimate reason. The old text set one minimum for both sides: at least 60 days where the wage was paid monthly, 30 otherwise. The new text separates them:

Article 76, which M/44 did not change, still requires the party that skips the notice to pay the other the employee's wage for the notice period, unless they agreed on more. A non-Saudi's contract is always fixed-term, so for expatriate staff the end date usually decides the timing; the offboarding guide follows a leaver from notice to final exit.

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Resignation: Article 74 and the new Article 79 bis

Article 2 now defines resignation as the employee's written disclosure, made without coercion, of a wish to end a fixed-term employment contract, without attaching any restriction or condition, and the employer's acceptance of it. The definition refers to a fixed-term contract, while an indefinite contract can also be ended on notice under Article 75; how the two routes apply to a particular employee is worth confirming with MHRSD or a lawyer.

Article 74 now lists resignation among the ways a contract ends, and adds a decision or final judgment of the competent court ending the employee's contract in bankruptcy proceedings.

Article 79 bis sets the procedure:

1. A resignation is deemed accepted if 30 days pass from its submission without a reply from the employer.
2. The employer may postpone acceptance for up to 60 days where the interest of the work requires it, by a written, reasoned explanation given to the employee before the 30 days run out. The 60 days count from the date of that explanation.
3. The contract ends when the employer accepts, when the 30 days pass without a reply, or when the postponement ends.
4. The employee may withdraw the resignation within seven days of submitting it, unless the employer has already accepted it.
5. A resignation may not name a postponed effective date.
6. The contract stays in force, with all its obligations, while the resignation is pending, and an employee whose contract ends by resignation keeps all their rights under the law.

For HR, silence is now an answer: log the date each resignation arrives and decide well inside 30 days.

Resignation still reduces the end-of-service award under Article 85, unchanged by M/44: a third after two to five years, two thirds after more than five and under ten, the full award from ten. The end-of-service benefits guide and the end-of-service calculator apply the scale.

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Leave: bereavement, new fathers and maternity

Article 113. The text in force before M/44, from a 2015 amendment, already gave five paid days for the employee's marriage or the death of a spouse, an ascendant or a descendant, and three for the birth of a child. The 2025 text keeps those, adds three days for the death of a brother or sister, counts the leave from the date of the event, and requires the birth leave to be taken within seven days of the birth. The employer may still ask for supporting documents.

Article 151. Maternity leave was ten weeks on full pay. It is now twelve weeks on full pay:

• The six weeks after the birth are compulsory.
• The other six may be distributed as she chooses, starting from four weeks before the expected date of delivery, set by a certified medical certificate.
• If a late birth leaves less than six weeks remaining, the balance needed to make up six weeks is unpaid.
• She may extend the leave by a month without pay.
• If the child is born sick or with a disability and needs a constant companion, she has a further month on full pay, extendable by a month without pay.

Annual leave (Article 109: at least 21 days, at least 30 after five years' continuous service) and sick leave (Article 117) were not amended; the guide to working hours, overtime and leave sets out every leave entitlement. For the penalties MHRSD attaches to labour violations, see the guide to its violations schedule.

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Overtime: paid time off as an alternative

Article 107 still requires overtime to be paid at the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic wage. The amendment lets the employer, with the employee's agreement, give paid compensatory leave instead. Article 22 bis of the Regulations sets the terms:

• The agreement states the period of overtime and the leave given for it, at no less than one and a half hours of leave per hour worked.
• The employer may set when the leave is taken, within 60 days of the overtime, unless the parties agree otherwise.
• Compensatory leave may not exceed 30 days a year.
• An employee who leaves before using it is paid for it.

For payroll, that makes time off in lieu a leave balance with a cash value at separation. The overtime and working hours guide works through the overtime pay calculation.

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Training: a policy for every employer

The old Article 42 required employers to prepare Saudi workers to replace non-Saudis gradually and to keep a register of those replacements; the old Article 43 required employers of 50 or more to train at least 12% of their workforce from among their Saudi staff each year. Now every employer must have a policy for training and qualifying its Saudi workers, and must train the proportion the Minister sets by decision. Article 44 now also requires a training programme to state the skill the employee is being trained in. The Regulations add working duties:

• Article 15: prepare job descriptions under the Saudi Unified Classification of Occupations and national occupational standards; evaluate trainees and record it on the employee's file; charge the trainee no training costs; and if the employee must stay on after training, limit that to the length of the training (indefinite contract) or the rest of the contract (fixed-term).
• Article 15 bis: disclose training data every year and document it on the platform the Ministry specifies.
• Article 16 (employers obliged to train): record each employee's training on that platform within 30 days, and name an employee responsible for training. The same article lets the employer recover training costs where the employee abandons the training without a legitimate excuse, is dismissed under Article 80 (except paragraph 6) during it, or resigns or leaves during it outside the cases in Article 81.

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Discipline, work permits and fees

Article 72. An employee given a disciplinary penalty used to have 15 days to object to the labour dispute body. Now they may raise a written grievance with the employer's competent unit within 30 days of notification, excluding official holidays. If it is rejected, or not decided in writing within 15 days, they may object before the labour courts within 30 days, excluding official holidays. Disciplinary procedures need that internal step and its 15-day clock.

Article 35. The Ministry could already refuse to renew a work permit where the employer breached its Saudization standards. It may now also refuse for breach of any other condition in the Regulations, which must protect the worker, including by allowing transfer to another employer without the defaulting employer's consent.

Article 40. The employer still bears recruitment, residence and work permit fees and their renewal, but the fines it bears are now those arising from delays the employer caused. The iqama renewal guide shows how this plays out.

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What an HR team should update now

1. Contract templates: the Ministry's model per contract type, a stated term for non-Saudis, the 180-day probation total, separate notice minimums.
2. Housing and transport: provided, or an allowance paid instead.
3. Resignations: a dated log, a decision within 30 days, a reasoned postponement template.
4. Leave: sibling bereavement, the seven-day birth-leave window, twelve weeks' maternity leave, probation counting that excludes holidays and sick leave.
5. Overtime: written time-off-in-lieu agreements, tracked as a balance.
6. Training: a written policy, job descriptions, platform records within 30 days.
7. Discipline: the internal grievance step.
8. Existing contracts: Article 8 voids any term that contravenes the law unless it is more beneficial to the employee. Take advice before amending signed contracts.

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How SCPL handles this for clients

SCPL runs HR administration, and the government transactions that go with it, for companies whose employees stay on the client's own establishment, from Dammam and Riyadh. On the points above, that covers:

• A review of your contract templates and HR policies against the 2025 amendments: the contract terms, probation, notice, resignation and leave provisions set out above, checked and updated where they no longer match the law.
• Employment contracts and employee files, drafted to Saudi labour law, authenticated on Qiwa (including bulk processing for existing staff whose contracts were never registered), and kept with their supporting documents to the standard an inspection expects.
• Leave and attendance: entitlement accrual, balances and attendance records tracked consistently across the workforce.
• Payroll: salaries, allowances, overtime and deductions calculated to the client's own policy and checked before the run closes.
• Onboarding, offboarding and final settlement: end-of-service, leave encashment and outstanding dues calculated to law, coordinated with the iqama and visa steps each leaver triggers, and end-of-service accrual tracked as it builds.

SCPL works on the client's portals under delegated access the client controls and can revoke; strategy, culture, performance and pay decisions stay with the client. The scope is on the service pages: HR outsourcing, payroll outsourcing, employee onboarding and offboarding and Qiwa services. To discuss your contracts and policies, send SCPL your headcount and where your employees are based.

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FAQ

When did the Saudi labour law amendments take effect?

On 19 February 2025 (20 Sha'ban 1446H), under Royal Decree No. M/44, with new Implementing Regulations published the same day.

What is the maximum probation period in Saudi Arabia now?

180 days in total, stated in the contract, with the Eid holidays, National Day, Founding Day and sick leave left out of the count. Either party may end the contract during probation.

What notice period must an employer give under the amended law?

On an indefinite contract with a monthly wage, at least 60 days' written notice from the employer and at least 30 from the employee; where the wage is not monthly, 30 days either way. A party that does not give notice pays the wage for the notice period.

Can an employer refuse or delay a resignation?

It can postpone it, not ignore it. Under Article 79 bis a resignation is deemed accepted after 30 days without a reply. The employer may postpone acceptance for up to 60 days where the work requires it, but only by a written, reasoned explanation given before the 30 days run out. The employee may withdraw within seven days unless it has already been accepted.

How much maternity and paternity leave does the law now give?

Twelve weeks' maternity leave on full pay, the six weeks after the birth compulsory, with a further month unpaid if she wishes. A father has three days on full pay for the birth of his child, to be taken within seven days of the birth.

Do the amendments apply to contracts signed before February 2025?

The amended articles are the law in force from 19 February 2025, and Article 8 voids any contract term that contravenes the law unless it is more beneficial to the employee. A clause giving less than the law now requires, such as a shorter maternity leave, cannot be relied on. Review older templates clause by clause, and take advice from MHRSD or a lawyer before amending signed contracts.

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Official sources

Verify current requirements directly with the authorities — the Labour Law and its Regulations change, and the official text is always ahead of any guide, including this one.

• MHRSD — Amendments to the Labour Law take effect (20 Sha'ban 1446H / 19 February 2025)
• MHRSD — Implementing Regulations of the Labour Law published (Arabic)
• MHRSD — Implementing Regulations of the Labour Law and its annexes (2025, PDF, Arabic)
• MHRSD — Labour Law, definitions and general provisions (Articles 1–21, Arabic)
• MHRSD — Labour Law, employment of non-Saudis (Articles 32–41, Arabic)
• MHRSD — Labour Law, training and qualification (Articles 42–49, Arabic)
• MHRSD — Labour Law, labour relations (Articles 50–88, Arabic)
• MHRSD — Labour Law, conditions of work (Articles 89–118, Arabic)
• MHRSD — Labour Law, employment of women (Articles 149–160, Arabic)
• Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers — Labour Law, with each article's amendment history (Arabic)