How to Prepare HR Policies for Saudi Labour Law Changes in 2026

Running a business or doing HR in Saudi Arabia means you cannot use your old employee handbooks anymore. Failure to update your internal rules can not only result in legal fines but also cause issues with government platforms like Qiwa and the risk of losing your top talent.

Below is a simple guide that will help you get your company's HR policies ready for these new labor updates.

1. Update Your Employment Contracts

The new laws hold digital contract compliance to a very high level of strictness. Thus, it is very important to ensure that all your employee contracts are current and uploaded to the government's Qiwa platform. As per the Saudi Labor Law 2026, the law considers a contract nonexistent if it is not digitally documented on Qiwa.

The rules for non-Saudi employees (expatriates) are now very detailed. All contracts for foreign workers must have a written, fixed-term end date. If you draft a contract and fail to include an end date, the law automatically sets the contract to a one-year fixed term starting from the day they started working.

2. Fix Your Probation Period Rules

In the past, many organizations operated on a kind of handshake basis when it came to probation periods. However, this is no longer allowed.

• The 180-Day Limit: The longest probation period that can be set is 180 days. This allows you plenty of time to evaluate whether the employee performs well and fits with the organization's culture.

• Must Be Written: You have to commit to that 180-day probation period in the digital employment contract entered on Qiwa before the employee's start. If you fail to digitalize it, the law will treat the employee as having no probation period at all.

3. Rewrite Your Leave and Time-Off Policies

One of the main components of the Saudi Labor Law 2026 is employee welfare and one of the areas where family support is highlighted. Therefore, you will need to revise your leave and time-off systems in order to be in compliance with the new legal minimums.

Maternity and Paternity Leave

Maternity leave was extended from 10 weeks to 12 weeks. This is an increase of 2 weeks, not 3 weeks. That's fully paid leave. Meanwhile, paternity leave for new dads is 3 workdays. And they have to take this within the 1st week from the birth of the child.

Compassionate Leave

To equip families better to get through adverse occasions, some modifications were made concerning family support. The new sibling bereavement leave applies directly to the employee's own brother or sister, not their spouse's sibling. Marriage leave is also set at five days.

Overtime and Compensatory Time Off

The usual method of paying cash for overtime work will be the same: 150% of the hourly wage rate. But basically, the whole idea here is somewhat different in that the new regulation gives you the alternative to handing over time off to the employee. And what is more important is that the employee has to agree to that in writing. Every one (1) hour of overtime work corresponds to one and a half (1.5) hours of leave.

4. Formulate Uncompromising Anti-Discrimination Policies

Never before have Saudi Arabia's laws listed very explicit prohibitions on discrimination in the private sector. Your company HR policy should unequivocally declare that no employee or job candidate shall be unjustly treated on the grounds of the following:

• Gender

• Age

• Disability

• Marital Status

This goes for your employment ads, pay decisions, daily employee interactions, and deciding on promotion. Furthermore, you have to establish a well-defined, documented internal missionary operation allowing the personnel to file complaints against unfair treatment before they can carry their grievances externally to the Labor Office.

5. Keep Up With the New Resignation and Exit Norms

The very notion of "resignation" has been officially acknowledged and assigned precise digital protocols under the reformed legislation.

Under the new updates, non-Saudi citizens cannot hold indefinite contracts; they are strictly restricted to fixed-term contracts. Only Saudi nationals can have indefinite contracts. For Saudi nationals, the notice period to terminate an indefinite contract is 30 days if initiated by the employee ands 60 days if initiated by the employer. Besides, workers enjoy a unique privilege of a change of heart: they may lawfully revoke their resignation within 7 days, provided the company has not already accepted it in a written form.

Need Help Fixing Your KSA HR Policies?

It takes thorough understanding of the Saudi legislation as well as swift changes to your day-to-day payroll and contract arrangements to get your business on a perfect footing with Saudi Labor Law 2026. Don't wait for a government audit to discover oversights in your employee handbook.

Get in touch with TASC KSA without delay. Our local HR compliance consultants will examine your present agreements, revise your company regulations, and guarantee that your business remains fully compliant with the newest Saudi labor norms.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What happens if we do not upload our employee contracts to Qiwa?

In case an employment contract is left unregistered in digital form on the Qiwa platform, legally it is regarded as if it did not exist. This scenario will expose your business to risks in case of labor disputes and can also result in denial of access to visa renewals and other government services.

2. Can we extend an employee's probation period past 180 days?

Forbiddingly, the legal maximum of a probation period according to the Saudi Labor Law 2026 is 180 days. A legal extension beyond this date is not possible.

3. Is providing housing and transport mandatory under the new law?

The law does not make it mandatory to physically provide these items. The rule clarifies that employers must provide either the physical accommodations/transport or provide clear, fair cash allowances for them inside the standard payroll structure. 

4. How long do we need to keep employee payroll and time records?

You must retain secure digital copies of all employee work hours, overtime hours, salary slips, and leave records for a minimum of 5 years.

5. What is the penalty for delaying employee salaries?

If your company defaults on salary payments for more than 5 days, the Ministry of Human Resources would have the authority to bring you into the legal fold and impose a fine on you. Moreover, if the salary defaulter is not paid for three months continuously, the employee(s) may seek a transfer to another job without first obtaining your consent.