Qiwa: ‘Absent’ employees can transfer jobs after 12 months in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH — The Qiwa platform, operated by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, has announced that an employee's status can be changed to 'absent' based on various reports, including absence reports, work interruption notices, or termination of the contractual relationship. Such employees can transfer to a new employer on the Qiwa platform, but they must have been employed in Saudi Arabia for more than a year. The new employer is responsible for settling any outstanding work permit fees.

Contracts cannot be established using the Qiwa platform for government employees until they complete clearance procedures and deregister from the government entity via the Masar platform. An employee may be removed from an establishment if their status in Absher or Muqeem is marked as "left and did not return" or "final exit."

Disputes between parties involved in a contractual relationship are not within Qiwa's jurisdiction. These disagreements can be resolved through the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development's amicable settlement service or by referring the matter to the labor court. Qiwa can only be accessed through the Nafath portal, and the group manager can authorize other users using the User Management service, granting them access to the organization's services based on their assigned permissions.

Qiwa is an electronic platform and does not accept or validate paper documents. To issue a work permit, the organization must not have remained in the 'red zone' for eight consecutive weeks, with an exception for newly created companies.