The amendments took effect on 19 February 2025, and many contracts written before that date are now out of step. Royal Decree M/44 amended the Labour Law in force from 19 February 2025. These are the new Saudi labour law changes that touch daily work, and the labour law updates for employers that inspectors now enforce. Probation can now be set at up to 180 days outright. Resignation became a process with deadlines, not a letter into a drawer. Notice periods moved. Maternity leave grew. None of it is optional. This post lists the Saudi labour law amendments of 2025 that change daily HR work, compares old rule against new, and ends with the documents to update this month. If your contracts, policies and Qiwa records were written before February 2025, something in them is now wrong.
Last reviewed: October 2026
Key points
- Royal Decree M/44 took effect on 19 February 2025. Update contract templates, work regulations, HR system settings and leave policy.
- Probation has a single 180-day cap that can be stated outright, must be in the contract, and applies once per employer.
- Notice for monthly-paid staff is 30 days from the employee and 60 from the employer. Resignation runs through Qiwa with a 30-day clock.
- Maternity leave is 12 weeks at full pay. End of service (Articles 84 to 88) was not changed.
1Saudi labour law amendments 2025: what changed, in one table
The amendments came through Royal Decree M/44 dated 8/2/1446H, published in August 2024, effective 19 February 2025. The confirmed changes:
| Topic | Old rule | New rule | Employer action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Probation | 90 days, extendable in writing up to 180 | A single cap of 180 days, which can be stated outright; must be in the contract, once per employer | Update contract templates and Qiwa clauses |
| Notice, open-ended contracts (monthly-paid) | 60 days either side | 30 days from employee, 60 from employer (non-monthly-paid: 30 days either side) | Fix notice clauses and templates |
| Resignation | Letter, no defined process | 30-day response window, up to 60-day postponement with written reasons, 7-day withdrawal, via Qiwa (framed around fixed-term contracts) | Build a resignation procedure |
| Maternity leave | 10 weeks | 12 weeks full pay | Update leave policy and payroll codes |
| Non-Saudi fixed-term contracts | Term rules varied | Term stays mandatory; unspecified term deemed 1 year, auto-renewed | Review non-Saudi contract files |
The official decree text sits with the Bureau of Experts, and MHRSD publishes its own summaries. Where a detail matters to a specific case, read the article, not the summary.
Updating contracts and policies for the 2025 rules? The Saudi Labor Law for Employers course covers what changed and what to do.
2Change by change
Probation: 180 days, once
Probation is now capped at a single maximum of 180 days, and the full length can be stated outright in the contract. Before, the rule was 90 days, extendable in writing up to 180. The period must be expressly stated in the contract with its length, and probation applies once per employer. If you extend within the 180-day total, do it in writing, with the employee’s agreement, before the original period ends. Days such as the two Eids and sick leave do not count towards the period, and the Executive Regulations list the rest. The full rules are in our probation period guide.
The document to change is the contract template, and the habit to change is verbal extension. An extension agreed in a meeting, without a signed writing, leaves the employer exposed. Put every extension in writing before the original period ends.
Notice periods: split by direction
For open-ended contracts with monthly-paid employees, notice moved from 60 days either way to 30 days when the employee gives it and 60 days when the employer does. The asymmetry is deliberate: the employee who can be replaced in weeks does not owe two months, while the employer who ends a livelihood does. The change sits in the amended articles of the law, published in the official amendments text.
Check what your contracts say today. Contracts drafted on the old rule either over-require employees or under-protect the company. Both versions create disputes, and the contract clause loses to the law when it is less generous than the statute.
Resignation: now a procedure with deadlines
This is the biggest operational change. Under new Article 79 bis, resignation runs through Qiwa with a clock:
- The employer must respond within 30 days, or the resignation is deemed accepted.
- The employer may postpone acceptance by up to 60 days, giving written reasons within the first 30 days.
- The employee may withdraw within 7 days, if the resignation is not yet accepted.
- Future-dated resignations are not allowed.
The procedure is framed around fixed-term contracts. For open-ended contracts the Article 75 notice rules still apply, so confirm which route your contract follows.
For HR teams, this means resignation needs an owner, a log and a calendar entry the day it arrives. Silence for 31 days accepts the resignation by law. Postponement without a written reason fails. The old drawer-and-hope method now produces legal outcomes nobody chose.
The postponement right deserves a second look, because it cuts both ways. A company losing a project manager mid-delivery can hold the departure for up to 60 days, with the reason in writing. The employee cannot be forced out earlier, and cannot be held longer. Used honestly, the window lets both sides plan a handover. Used as punishment, it breeds the kind of departing employee who documents everything on the way out.
Maternity leave: 12 weeks
Maternity leave rose from 10 weeks to 12, at full pay, with six weeks taken after birth as a minimum. The payroll change is small. The policy and contract-template change matters more, because old templates still say ten, and a template that understates a statutory entitlement is a violation waiting for an inspection.
Non-Saudi contracts: fixed-term stays
The amendment confirmed that non-Saudi employee contracts remain fixed-term. Where a term is unspecified, the law deems it one year, renewed automatically for similar periods. The practical work is in the files: every non-Saudi contract should state a term clearly, and renewals should be documented before expiry, not after.
Smaller changes worth logging
Three further amendments round out the picture. Paternity leave is three paid days, taken within seven days of the birth. Bereavement leave expanded to cover the death of a sibling, also three days. And overtime can, with the employee’s written consent, be swapped for compensatory leave instead of pay. None of these will reorganise an HR department. All of them should appear in the updated leave policy, because an inspector reads the policy as a statement of what the company knows.
3Your update checklist
Work through this list and tick honestly:
- Employment contract template: probation clause, notice clause, leave entitlements.
- Offer letters issued but not yet signed: regenerate on the new template.
- Internal work regulations: resignation process, maternity, notice periods.
- HR system settings: probation maximums, notice calculators, leave codes.
- Qiwa contract records: old contracts stay as signed, but new ones must follow the new rules.
- Payroll: maternity pay duration and leave codes.
One weekend of focused work covers most of it. The companies that fail this update are the ones who assign it to nobody.
4What has not changed
Do not over-correct. The end of service formula in Articles 84 to 88 is untouched. Annual leave is still 21 days, rising to 30 after five years. Working hours, overtime rates and GOSI contributions continue as before. Teams that rebuild every policy because “the law changed” waste a week and introduce new errors into documents that were fine. Change what changed. Leave the rest alone.
5Common mistakes
Updating the template but not existing contracts. The template governs new hires. Existing contracts continue on their signed terms until amended by agreement. Companies that assume the new law rewrote every contract automatically create expectations the law does not support.
Forgetting the internal work regulations. The regulations sit next to the contract in every inspection. A contract on the new rules with regulations on the old ones reads as a company that started an update and abandoned it.
HR systems still calculating old notice periods. The system generates the termination letter with 60 days for everyone. For employee resignations, that is now double the legal requirement, and the error propagates until someone notices the exit interviews running two months long.
Treating the Qiwa resignation workflow as optional. The new process lives on Qiwa. A resignation handled by email alone skips the statutory clock, and the deemed-acceptance rule still applies. Route every resignation through the platform.
6FAQ
When did the Saudi labour law amendments take effect?
Royal Decree M/44 was published in August 2024 and took effect on 19 February 2025.
Do the amendments apply to existing contracts?
The law applies to all employment relationships from 19 February 2025, but existing contracts continue on their signed terms where those terms are lawful. Rules that set minimums, such as maternity leave, apply to everyone. Contract clauses below the new minimums are unenforceable.
Do I need to re-sign contracts?
No general re-signing is required. Update templates for new contracts, and amend existing contracts by agreement where their terms conflict with the new minimums. Massive re-signing exercises create disruption without legal necessity.
Where can I read the official text?
The decree and the amended law sit with the Bureau of Experts at laws.boe.gov.sa, and MHRSD publishes guidance on its portal. For a specific case, read the article itself; summaries, including this one, compress.
Do the amendments apply to non-Saudi employees?
Yes, with the exception that their contracts remain fixed-term as before. Probation, resignation procedures, maternity provisions and notice rules apply across the workforce.
7Next step
Pull one live employment contract and one copy of your work regulations, and check them against the table at the top of this post. Every mismatch is a task with a deadline. The amendment text rewards employers who read it once, properly, and update in one pass. To work through the amendments with examples and templates, the Saudi Labor Law for Employers course covers the new rules from hiring to termination. Then read how the changes play out in probation and WPS compliance.
Related reading: how to calculate end of service benefits, probation period in Saudi labour law.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with the official source or a licensed adviser.