65,000 women replace male staff at Saudi accessory shops

The male staff of over 13,000 women’s accessory shops in Saudi Arabia have been replaced by 65,000 women as part of a job feminization plan at those places, newspapers in the conservative Gulf kingdom said on Monday.
 
Dr Fahad Sulaiman Al-Tekhaifi, assistant undersecretary for private programmes, said Saudi women have proved they can be successful in the private sector, especially in the women’s accessory sector.
 
“They have won the trust of employers and some of them work as supervisors for SR20,000 a month,” Al-Tekhaifi said, quoted by local newspapers.
 
Faisal Al-Otaibi, director of inspection department at the ministry, announced the launch of two new inspection programmes.
 
The first is an operation room and the second an electronic inspection programme, which allows inspectors to spot violations through electronic devices, he said.
 
Ziyad Al-Sayegh, undersecretary for customer services and labour affairs, said the ministry has launched a new mechanism to handle complaints and process them within 10 days from the date of filing.
 
More than 105,000 complaints, an average of 500 a day, have been received by the department since last September, he said, adding that the ministry has around 245 call centers to receive complaints.
 
In March, the ministry started the implementation of the third phase of the feminization of shops selling women’s accessories.
 
This phase includes shops selling female perfumes, Jalabiyas (traditional dresses), bags, shoes, socks, clothes and fabrics for women as well as shops selling mother-care products (baby stuff are excluded), and pharmacies in malls selling beauty products and accessories.
 
By October 2016, the ministry plans to achieve its goal to employ women in all stores selling women’s accessories.

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