Saudi Arabia has offered its expertise in training Sri Lankan domestic aides before they come for employment in the Kingdom, international media has reported.
    
Saad Al-Badaah, chairman of the Saudi Arabian National Recruitment Committee (SANARCOM), offered such assistance to the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) when he met its Chairman Amal Senalankadhikara in Colombo on Friday.

Al-Badaah is currently leading a six-member delegation in Colombo to smooth out the differences between the two countries on recruitment of domestic workers to the Kingdom, according to media reports.

The talks between the two parties had focused on issues faced by recruitment offices and also explored solutions that would suit the employers as well as the employees.

Al-Badaah said the SANARCOM could send trainers to train the trainers in Colombo, who offer them one-month training for the Saudi-bound domestic aides.

Following the meeting, General Manager and Spokesperson of SLBFE Mangala Randeniya, has told that SANARCOM had requested health care nurses from Sri Lanka to look after elders in Saudi homes.

Randeniya said that the Saudi delegation is also keen on implementing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed early this year between Labor Minister Adel Fakeih and Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Dilan Perera in Riyadh.

The labor agreement for domestic workers recruitment was a joint effort by Riyadh and Colombo to create a unified and well-regulated system for recruitment with emphasis on monitoring the working conditions of Sri Lankans.

It will cover 12 categories of domestic workers, including housemaids, drivers, cleaners and waiters employed by individuals.

There are some 550,000 Lankan workers in the Kingdom and a good number belong to the domestic sector.

Last year, Sri Lanka said it would gradually stop allowing women going to Saudi Arabia to be housemaids after Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan, was executed in the country over the death of an infant in her care.

But earlier this year, Saudi Arabia said it was eying new labour agreements covering domestic workers from six countries including Sri Lanka in the next phase of the kingdom’s historic workplace relations reforms.

More than half-a-million foreign workers fled their employers in Saudi Arabia last year, according to the Ministry of Labour.

The expats, mostly low-paid workers such as maids, drivers and labourers, were reported as runaways by their employers.

Disputes between employers and employees are common in the kingdom, where expats make up about one-third of the entire population of 28 million and workers have few rights compared to international standards.

Several labour exporting nations have at times banned their citizens from working in the kingdom over disputes relating to workers’ rights.

Last year, it was reported that the kingdom had announced new rules to protect the rights of domestic helpers.