Interior Ministry to Cooperative Societies Councils: Hold Negligent Parties Accountable for 'Cooperatives' Workers' Salaries

Faisal Matar – In parallel with the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousef’s commitment to ensuring the regular payment of salaries to workers in the private sector and safeguarding their financial rights, the issue of wages for handling workers in cooperative societies has come to the fore. This follows Al-Yousef’s statement last week during a meeting with representatives of private companies at the Public Authority for Manpower, where he emphasized that the injustice caused by unpaid salaries has reached an unacceptable level, extending to handling workers in cooperatives.

In this context, sources in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor confirmed that the ministry, represented by its Financial and Administrative Affairs sector and the Cooperatives Affairs sector, will take necessary legal and punitive measures against the boards of directors of cooperatives found to have failed in their responsibilities regarding the regular payment of salaries to workers registered under the files of contracting companies, whether those boards are elected or appointed. The sources clarified that any complaint concerning the financial rights of cooperative workers will be taken seriously, and investigations will be launched immediately to verify the extent to which companies comply with the regular monthly payment of salaries and to determine the responsibility of the boards of directors in this regard.

Salary Deductions: On another front, the Public Authority for Manpower has specified 13 approved reasons under the salary deduction system, allowing companies to register reasons for salary shortfalls by selecting the appropriate reason for each worker in the month where full payment was not made. These reasons include unpaid leave within or outside the country, child care leave, leave paid in advance via bank transfer, sick leave paid partially or unpaid, and delay in returning from leave outside the country. They also include the cancellation of the work permit, its recent issuance to the employer, registering a report of worker absence, days of absence from work, a pending complaint before investigative authorities and judicial dispute bodies, debts or loans due to the employer, and transfers to non-local financial institutions.

Suspended Files: Regarding the map of files registered with the Authority, data showed the existence of 100,252 registered files covering workers, distributed between 51,844 files containing fewer than five workers (51.7%) and 48,408 files containing five or more workers (48.3%). It was indicated that the number of suspended files due to non-payment of salaries as of June 2026 reached 8,849 files, representing 18.3% of the category of files with five or more workers, compared to 39,559 non-suspended files, accounting for 81.7% of the same category.