If you are interviewing for a position in the US or Canada, it is illegal to ask your age, religion, weight, health, or marital status. The situation is dramatically different when you apply for a position in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. An application will not be considered/approved unless it includes: your photograph, age, height, weight, religion, and a detailed health questionnaire.
And then, there is the offer. When you receive a job offer, the terms of pay, vacation, hours worked, benefits etc. are presented in detail. The large tertiary-care hospitals, which have historically hired large numbers from North America, have complete and well-organized employment contracts. But we have been told stories that have caused heartache for employees, who have been hired by hospitals that do not routinely hire people from the West, or, who have worked with recruitment companies which have little experience about what is happening on the ground in the Arabian Peninsula.
Therefore, to avoid disappointment, I offer a list of common misunderstandings / occurrences:
- Never relocate to a position without having a signed offer/contract. Yes, this has happened.
- Concerning vacation days: clarify whether the number of vacation days is work days or calendar days.
- A married status contract entitles the employee to bring a spouse and children, and the employer will pay for their relocation and subsidize the cost of childrens' education, etc. In Saudi Arabia, with a few exceptions, married status contracts are offered only to doctors or male management-level employees. If someone tells you otherwise, call the Saudi organization directly, or call us.
- If you do have a married status contract, and one of the benefits is a specific dollar amount for the education of dependant children, go online and determine the actual cost of the school fees. Depending on the hospital, the difference between the actual fees and the amount paid by the hospital as education allowance can be close to US $10,000.
- The occasional hospital in Saudi Arabia still has, believe it or not, split work shifts for nurses.
- Concerning the overtime pay rate: Saudi Labour Law considers your days off as days for which you are paid. Therefore if on your offer, the overtime rate is listed as 1.5 of your hourly rate, the number of hours used to calculate the overtime rate is much higher than the number of hours you actually work in one week.
- Some contracts (especially in UAE) offer a house allowance rather than providing housing. You should investigate whether the housing allowance covers the cost of reasonable housing.
- Don’t let any government authority, in any way deface your passport, e.g. staple an entry visa to it, or put a sticker on the outside. Since 9/11, Customs Officers and Airlines have become very particular and, if your passport is defaced, could refuse you entry to a country or not allow you to board an airplane.
Finally, we would be happy to receive further advice/cautionary notes for this list.
Dominika Kaleta
Logistics Manager
