Govt kickstarts labour agreement negotiations with Saudi Arabia

On December 23,2022, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development wrote to all recruitment agencies and all pre-departure orientation and training institutions alerting them of the suspension of the bilateral labour agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This was in accordance with article 10 of the BLA of the domestic workers between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Uganda.

The same article provides that suspension/termination shall be without prejudice to the individual employment contracts existing at the same time of suspension or termination.

According to the permanent secretary at Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Aggrey Kibenge, this was done earlier before the December 27, 2022 deadline to avoid an automatic trigger within the contract yet a number of raised concerns had not been addressed.

Now Kibenge says contacts have been established and are working out a roadmap which will show what will be done and when.

Among the amendments is the establishment of the Joint Technical Committee to work on issues being raised by workers from time to time in a timely manner.

In 2017, the Ugandan Government entered into a five-year labour agreement with Saudi Arabia aimed at promoting the welfare and rights of migrant workers.

Statistics from the ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development show that Saudi Arabia is the biggest labour externalisation destination in the Middle East with over 150,000 Ugandans migrant workers.

However, there have been persistent complaints about the torture of Ugandan labourers, confiscation of their travel documents such as passports, denial of leave and return permits, and non-payment among others.

With the effective expiry of the agreement today December 27, Uganda through the ministry of Gender has asked Saudi Arabia to address the different grievances raised by Ugandan migrants if the agreement is to be renewed.