Work regulations:the unified template and how it is approved

The statutory basis

Two routes, depending on size

An employer with fewer than fifty workers may choose the unified template electronically on the ministry's website, with no amendment or addition. They follow the steps to approval and receive an electronic certificate. This route is faster and cheaper.

An employer that wants its own regulations, with extra terms that do not conflict with the Law or its Regulations, must have them reviewed and certified by a law firm accredited on the ministry's website. The law firm then submits them to the competent department.

If your regulations were approved before

You do not need to prepare new regulations under the unified template if all your existing provisions comply with the Law, the Regulations, the unified template and the decisions issued under them. Any provision that conflicts is treated as repealed and must be amended through the same route.

Publication is a separate requirement

Approval is not enough on its own. Article 13 requires the regulations and any amendment to be published in a visible place at work, or by any means that makes sure the people they apply to know their provisions. They have to reach employees. Keeping them in an admin folder does not count.

Registers the Regulations require

• Workers list: names, occupations, ages, nationalities, ID numbers, and work permit numbers and dates for non-Saudis.
• Wages statement: wages, dates received, deductions and their reasons.
• Fines register: worker name, wage, fine amount, reason and date imposed.
• Attendance record: time in, time out, and any further data the employer adds.
• Saudi training register: programme name, type, duration, year, trainees and their proportion.
• Medical examination register for establishments whose workers may contract occupational diseases.
• A work file for each worker: their data, address, a copy of the contract, and any certificates or documents they submit.

What an employer can add

• Policies that do not conflict with the Law: remote work, acceptable use of devices, confidentiality.
• Benefits above the statutory minimum: more leave, allowances, broader insurance. You may go above the minimum but not below it.
• Internal approval routes: who approves leave, who imposes a penalty, who decides a grievance.
• Grievance channels and deadlines consistent with Article 71 of the Regulations.

Steps to follow

1. 01Count your workers. The number decides which route applies.
2. 02Open the work-regulations approval service on the ministry's website.
3. 03If you choose the unified template, adopt it unchanged and follow the steps until the electronic certificate is issued.
4. 04If you want bespoke regulations, have them reviewed and certified by an accredited law firm. The law firm submits them to the competent department.
5. 05Publish the regulations in a visible place or by a means that actually reaches employees. Publish them again after every amendment.
6. 06Set up the seven registers required by Article 5, on paper or electronically.
7. 07Before imposing any penalty, check your internal violations and penalties schedule line by line against the schedule in the Regulations.

Common mistakes

How Barez saves you filling it in by hand