Riyadh: In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, domestic workers can now change their sponsorship through Absher platform, local media reported on Monday.
Since March 2021, the ministry of labor and social development has simplified the transfer procedures for ex-patriates working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the Qiwa platform (electronic platform that provides the ministry of human resources and social development services, solutions to enhance the electronic services provided to the labor sector). But this benefit was not allowed for domestic workers.
The ministry has now offered an opportunity to change the sponsorship of domestic workers in a similar way.
The Absher platform (smartphone application that allows citizens of and residents in Saudi Arabia to use a variety of governmental services) has recently started offering a new feature to domestic workers so that they can respond to requests to transfer their sponsorship by accepting or rejecting it.
Under the new mechanism, the transfer of sponsorship of domestic workers will only take place if the current employer is ready for the transfer.
The current employer must send the application through Absher to the new employer to request the acceptance of the worker.
The new employer then waits for the approval of the domestic worker by Absher account, and upon completion of the approval, the worker is transferred to the new employer.
However, sponsorship cannot be changed by Absher if there is more than one house driver or more than one in the same profession working under the same sponsor.