The employment contract and Qiwa attestation: mandatory clauses and renewal

Article 51 provides that the employment contract be written in two copies, one kept by each party, and that the contract stands even where it is not written.

In that case the provision allows the employee alone to prove the contract and the rights arising from it by any means of proof, and either party may request that the contract be put in writing at any time.

An establishment relying on a verbal arrangement therefore loses first on the wage, the contract type, and the probation period, which are the three most disputed points.

Article 52 requires the ministry to issue a unified template for each type of employment contract, containing certain data as a minimum:

The wage written in the contract is not a figure for reference: it is the basis on which end-of-service gratuity, leave allowance, and payment in lieu of notice are computed, and it is what the wage protection file is matched against every month.

Breaking the wage down into basic and fixed allowances in the contract is therefore clearer than stating a single figure, because many entitlements are computed on the wage including fixed allowances alone.

Any later change to the wage should be documented in an addendum rather than a message, or the old wage stays the officially recorded one while a different amount is paid, which is among the commonest causes of wage protection flags.

A fixed-term contract ends on expiry of its term with no notice from either side and the gratuity is paid in full, and ending it before its term without lawful cause gives rise to compensation for the remaining period.

An indefinite contract ends by the will of either party subject to a notice period, and it is the contract to which the thirds rule on resignation applies under Article 85.

A contract with a non-Saudi is fixed-term by nature, and where it states no term, its term is one year from the employee's actual start date; if work continues beyond it the contract is treated as renewed for a like period, and it never converts to an indefinite contract even by agreement.

Attestation is done electronically from the establishment's account, entering the employee's core data and contract details including job title, wage, working hours, and the nature of the role, and both parties then approve it.

Its effect is to fix the terms with their date before an official body, so a dispute about what was agreed no longer turns on interpretation, and that serves the establishment as much as the employee.

Attestation also links the contract to the rest of the obligations, since its data is what appears in the wage file and in the establishment's account, and any divergence between it and reality surfaces as a flag.

A fixed-term contract whose parties carry on performing it after its term expires is treated as renewed for a like period, which is why knowing the end date before it arrives matters rather than after.

An establishment that discovers a contract expired a month ago has already lost its choice over it, so advance alerts on contract, Iqama, and probation expiry are not an administrative luxury but control over decisions that carry a cost.