Article 7 of the Saudi Labor Law

Article 7 of the Labor Law identifies the categories to which the provisions of the law do not apply at all, and they are five:

• Members of the employer's family: his spouse, ascendants (such as father and mother) and descendants (such as children), provided they work in an establishment that includes no one else; if the establishment has even one worker from outside the family, this condition is not met.
• Players and coaches of sports clubs and federations.
• Domestic workers and those in their position.
• Private agricultural workers and herders and those in their position.
• Non-Saudi workers who come to perform a specific task for a period not exceeding two months.

But exclusion from the law does not mean the absence of any regulation. Paragraph (2) requires the Minister to issue one or more regulations, in coordination with the competent bodies, for four of these categories (family members, domestic workers, agricultural workers and herders, and expatriate workers on a specific task), setting out the rights, duties and special provisions of each category. Only the category of players and coaches remains outside this requirement. The law expressly provides that a violation of those regulations is punished by the penalties in Article 229 of the law, which is an exception to the rule of non-application.

Paragraph (3) adds a special condition for the regulations on domestic workers and on agricultural workers and herders: that they include measures that improve the performance of the labor market for these two categories, regulate the worker's transfer, and define the responsibilities of employers and of the offices and companies that mediate in contracting with them.

A distinction should be drawn between this article and Article 6: the casual, seasonal and temporary worker is not excluded from the law, but specific provisions of it apply to him (such as working hours, safety and work injuries), whereas the categories mentioned here fall outside the whole law and are subject to their own regulations. The article was amended by Royal Decree No. M/46 dated 5/6/1436 AH and then by Royal Decree No. M/44 dated 8/2/1446 AH, in force from 20/8/1446 AH. A person who falls within one of these categories and faces a dispute is advised to consult a labor lawyer to learn the regulation that applies to his case.