An employee working in Saudi Arabia is not supposed to work continuously more than 48 hours a week without a day off. Any hours worked beyond this must be compensated at the rate of 150% of the pay. Generally, Friday is the weekly off (Thursdays and Fridays are the weekly offs for government offices and banks). For people working in shift duty, the weekly off can be on other days, provided that they do not work more than 48 hours a week.
During the month of Ramadan, Muslim employees should not work more than 6 hours a day. Again, where the work deems that they have to work additional hours, Muslim employees have to be compensated with overtime.
A minimum of 4 days at the end of the month of Ramadan and 4 days Hajj holidays are to be given to the employees every year. Also, September 23, which is the Saudi National Day, is a compulsory holiday for both government offices as well as private sector.
As per law, employees are entitled for 21 days vacation after completing the first year of service and 30 days vacation after 5 years of service. However, it is quite common that employees in private sector, particularly in lower levels, to be released on vacation only once in two or three years. Remember that this is a paid vacation, which means that you are supposed to be paid for the duration of the vacation and also the to and fro air tickets to your home country. You have to be careful about this point in the contract, because a few unscrupulous employers may sometimes browbeat the employees into foregoing some of their rights.
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This article is an abstract from workinginsaudiarabia.blogspot.com - a Weblog on working in Saudia Arabia.