The Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MLSD) announced the timetables for the wage protection system that target under 80 workers and up to 11 workers, which will start on August 1st, 2017. Khaled Abalkhail, spokesman for the MLSD, said the system will implement its remaining six phases on establishments whose workers range between 11 and 80 with kicking off the 11th phase of the system that targets those with workforce of 60-79 workers in the beginning of August this year. With implementing the 16th phase of the system, the establishments with 11-14 workers will have to upload the wages of their workers in the beginning of November, 2018, adding the application of the WPS on those having less than 11 workers will be announced later, said Abalkhail. The spokesman emphasized the ministry’s keenness to implement the WPS on all private firms to ensure wages are paid on time, define wage scales for all occupations and reduce labor issues between employers and workers. He stressed the ministry would not hesitate to implement the system on every firms as timetables are set forth. According to the sanctions and penalties mentioned in the labor law, if the establishment fails to pay workers’ wages, it will be fined SR3,000, and fines can be increased by the number of workers working at the same violating establishment, said Abalkhail as well. Abalkhail added if the employer fails to upload wages files within two months, he would be denied access to the ministry’s services, except for issuance or renewal of work permits. If the employer is late to upload them for three months, his establishment will have no access to all the ministry’s services, and the workers, can transfer their service to other employers without approval from their former employers, added the spokesman. The transfer cannot be done even if the workers have valid work permits with the former employer. Recently, the ministry unveiled an initiative titled ‘the wage management system’ as part of the National Transformation Program (NTP) 2020. It aims to create a safe and suitable work environment in the private sector as it will increase transparency and protect the contractual relationships among involved parties, expecting that small and medium-sized enterprises’ compliance to the system would reach 80 percent by 2020. The employers can visit the ministry’s website and review upcoming phases of implementing the WPS as well as register with the program in advance as the demo registration will not result in imposing any sanctions on employers. For more information, they can download the WPS Guide from the website www.mol.gov.sa