Walid Al-Samaani, minister of justice and president of the Supreme Judicial Council.

Following three strings of postponements during the past few years, the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Judicial Council have taken new steps to launch the long-awaited special labor courts in Saudi Arabia.

The steps were initiated by naming 99 assistant judges to undergo training courses on solving labor disputes, and other labor issues and litigation, in addition to assigning 80 judges to assume their judicial tasks after being trained to work in these new labor courts which are expected to begin functioning during this current year, according to Justice Ministry sources.

Walid Al-Samaani, minister of justice and president of the Supreme Judicial Council, approved the initial list of assistant judges to be trained in judicial works through a three-month course pending their appointment.

They will be appointed at five labor courts which will be launched in Jeddah, Riyadh, Damman, Makkah and Madinah, in addition to labor dispute settlement offices affiliated with other courts across the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Judicial Council assigned 80 judges on duty to be transferred later to the labor courts.

Meanwhile, the president of the Supreme Judicial Council canceled a previous decision to mandate the training mission of assistant judges to the labor committees. The Ministry of Justice last week decided to task the training mission to the Higher Judicial Institute under the supervision of the judicial training center.

The number of labor cases received by the initial commission for labor disputes last year stood at 9,956, of which 4,241 involved Saudi citizens, a rate of 42.6 percent, with the remaining 5,715 cases involving non-Saudis, a rate of 57.4 percent.

The number of cases involving Saudis which were considered and settled stood at 3,714 cases. Non-official sources estimated the number of cases to be referred to the labor courts to stand at 20,000.

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