5.6.3: Maternity and Paternity Policies that Support Women’s Participation

The Labor Law

The Saudi Labor Law which was issued in 2005 and lately reviewed in 2017, specifies the regulations and policies of the Labor Law and explains maternity and paternity leaves for mothers and fathers consequently.

KAU abides by, follows, and applies these Regulations in details.

From pages 60 to 62:

Article 151

A working woman has the right to give birth for a period of four weeks prior to the probable date of delivery, and the six weeks following it, and the expected date of delivery is determined by the facility’s physician, or according to a medical certificate by a health authority. It is prohibited to employ women during the six weeks immediately following the birth.

Article 152

The employer must pay to the working woman, during her interruption of the maternity leave, the equivalent of half her wages, if she has one year of service and more with the employer, and the full wage if her service period reaches three years or more on the day the leave begins. The fare is not paid to her during her ordinary annual leave if she had benefited from a maternity leave with full pay, and she gets half of her wages during the annual leave if, in the same year, she had taken advantage of maternity leave with half pay.

Article 153

An employer must provide medical care to the working women during pregnancy and childbirth.

Article 154

When working women return to work after the maternity leave, a working woman is entitled to take, with the intention of breastfeeding her newborn, a period or periods of rest that do not exceed one hour per day, in addition to the rest periods granted to all workers. This period or periods of breastfeeding are considered as actual working hours and do not result in a reduction in wages.

Article 155

An employer may not dismiss a women worker or warn her to dismiss while she is on maternity leave.

Article 156

An employer may not dismiss a female worker during the period of her illness resulting from pregnancy or childbirth, and the disease is proven by an approved medical certificate, provided that her absence does not exceed one hundred and eighty days, and she may not be dismissed without a legitimate reason from the reasons stipulated in this system during the previous one hundred and eighty days preceding the possible birth date.

Paternity Leave, on page 47:

Article 113

A male worker shall be entitled to one day of paid leave in the case of childbirth and three days for marriage or in the case of the death of a spouse or one of his ascendants and descendants.