Riyadh, Aug. 1 -- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has introduced a 60-day grace period under new updates to its Qiwa labour platform, allowing workers time to regularise their employment status before being officially marked as "absent from work."

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development's (MoHRSD's) digital platform, Qiwa, now allows employers to file a status change request only if the worker's residency permit (Iqama) is valid for at least 60 days and there is no active employment contract.

Once an employee is marked as "disconnected from work," they are given two months to either transfer to another employer, exit the country, or re-contract with their current employer.

If no action is taken during this interval, th...