Private sector employees want reduced working hours

Seventy-nine percent of private sector employees have asked that working hours be reduced to between 35 and 40 hours instead of the current 48 hours per week, according to a survey conducted by the National Center of Dialogue. Surprisingly, some 21 percent of the employees asked for an increase in working hours on the grounds that the current working hours are not sufficient to accomplish the required work, the report, carried by a local daily, said. On the other hand, 83 percent of the employees asked for two days off whereas 13 percent asked for one day off for their weekends, the survey said. The survey was originally meant to explore opinions of private sector employees over working hours. The opinion poll comprised 64 percent males and 36 percent females, of which 89 percent were Saudis. Samples of the survey were collected from 13 regions of the Kingdom. Some 36.7 percent of respondents said working hours from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (seven hours) are ideal, whereas 15 percent and 48 percent of the respondents supported eight- and nine-hour work shifts respectively, the survey found. According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Labor, the number of employees in private sector companies stood at 6.2 million, of which 829,000 were Saudis, or 13.3 percent of the total work force. -arabnews