There are several laws and regulations that have been defined and stated by the Government, to which all higher education institutions, including King Abdulaziz University, should abide to and apply within its premises. Consequently, KAU has defined its Professional Ethics Charter to customize and align with the anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies of the government.
To view the policy text, click here.
On page 51, of the Implementing Regulations of the Labor Law, which is issued in November 2019, under Article 34, point 2, it is mentioned that:
Wage discrimination between male and female workers performing equal work is prohibited.
In the Professional Ethics Charter, which is created in 2015, and lately reviewed in 2020, Principle 4 under the “Ethical Principles” section, page 8, is titled: “Equality and Non-Discrimination”, and defines it as “Equality and Non-Discrimination is an understanding that requires the employees (faculty & staff) to deal with all students, fellow faculty members and everyone in KAU in a similar way, regardless of gender, social status, religion, color, Ethnicity, disability or other”.
Principle 1 under sub-section “Peer Faculty Members & Administration” which is listed under the “Obligations & Responsibilities” section, page 11, requests that the faculty member “demonstrates the ethical anti-discrimination behavior of Islam and morals when dealing with the administration, colleagues, students, and all university employees”.
Principle 19 under sub-section “University” which is listed under the “Obligations & Responsibilities” section, page 13, requests the faculty member “to commit to seek and contribute to preventing all kinds of discrimination against any person or group on the basis of race, color, sex, age, religion, political belief, disabilities in its various categories, personal preferences, and social status or standing”.
The Ministerial decree number 39860, issued in 2018, decided the following important rules and regulations regarding the discrimination against women in the work domains and the workplaces. The Ministry of Labor and Social Development stressed the need for employers and workers in the private sector to comply with the unified organization of the working environment for women, which aims to create an attractive working environment for women and enable them to work in various labor market activities, while maintaining their privacy at work.
The ministry pointed to its keenness through this organization to open several areas for women's work while providing an attractive and safe work environment for women's work and stability.
The related decisions can be fetched from page 4:
It is forbidden to do any work that could affect women’s freedom which could slow or stop work equality or discrimination in treatment at work which will be against the Labor Law and other regulations.
It is forbidden to discriminate between genders regarding their wages in jobs which have similar profiles.
The organization is responsible to provide adequate working environment for women.
The Ministry stressed that any enterprise that violates the provisions of the regulation will be subject to the penalties imposed by the Labor Law and relevant ministerial decisions, stressing that it will not be negligent in following up the commitment of the establishments to organize and implement the legal procedures in their right.