Article 68 of the Saudi Labor Law

Article 68 of the Labor Law deals with a common situation in the workplace: a worker who commits a violation for which they have been punished before. It is usual for the sanction for a repeated violation to be harsher than for the first one, but the Law sets a time limit on this escalation to protect the worker from having their old violations follow them indefinitely.

The rule: the employer may not make the sanction more severe on the basis of repetition if 180 days have passed since the previous violation. This period is counted from the date the worker was notified of the imposition of the sanction on them for that violation, not from the date it was committed or the date it was discovered.

What follows in practice:

• If the new violation occurs after 180 days have passed from notifying the worker of the previous sanction, it is treated as a first violation as far as the degree of sanction is concerned, and may not be considered a "repetition" for the purpose of escalation.
• If it occurs within 180 days, the employer may make the sanction more severe because of repetition, provided that the more severe sanction is itself stated in the Law or in the work organization regulations, as Article 67 provides.
• The article does not prevent imposing a sanction for the new violation; it prevents only making it more severe on the ground of repetition.

Its relationship to the neighboring articles: this article completes the system of time-based safeguards in disciplinary sanctions; Article 67 confines sanctions to what the Law or the regulations provide, and Article 69 prevents accusing a worker of a violation more than 30 days after its discovery, and prevents imposing the sanction more than 30 days after the investigation ended and the violation was established, while Article 68 sets the period during which the previous sanction remains influential in assessing the new sanction.

What does the worker do? If a sanction made more severe on the ground of repetition is imposed on them even though 180 days have passed since they were notified of the previous sanction, they may rely on the text of this article before the employer, and it is advisable to consult a labor lawyer to assess the position and the appropriate steps, especially if the more severe sanction affects wages or amounts to dismissal.