1. This Law shall be called “Social Insurance Law” and shall constitute the following insurance branches:

• a. Occupational Hazards Branch which provides benefits in cases of employment injuries.

• b. Annuities Branch which provides benefits in cases of non-occupational disability,old-age,and death.

2. The insurance branches constituted hereunder may be extended to provide other kinds of benefits in accordance with the statutory methods.

The words and phrases contained in this Law indicate their meanings as explained before them unless there is a conflicting text:

1- Minister: Minister of Finance.

2- Social Insurance: The social insurance stipulated in this Law.

3- Organization: General Organization for Social Insurance.

4- Regulation or Regulations: The decisions that include regulatory rules or general executive provisions in accordance with this Law.

5- Compensations: The benefits provided by each branch of the Law, whether those benefits are monetary such as pensions, returns, and allowances, or services such as medical treatment and its related services.

6- Employer: Any natural or legal person - to whom this Law applies - who employs one or more workers who meet the conditions stipulated in this Law.

7- Insured: Anyone who is subject to social insurance, whether male or female. Therefore, the use of the masculine expression in any text also includes females as long as the meaning is consistent. This insured person is described as mandatory insured if they are among the workers mentioned in paragraph three of Article Four, and is described as optional insured if they are among the categories mentioned in paragraph four of Article Four, and paragraph one of Article Eight.

8- Family members are:

• A- The widow or widower of the deceased, and the widower is the one whose wife, who is insured under the system, has died if he is unable to earn, until his incapacity ceases.

• B- Male children under the age of twenty-one until they reach this age, and daughters until they marry, and the maximum age limit for male children is extended to twenty-six years if they are continuing their studies in an educational or vocational institution, and there is no age limit as long as they remain unable to engage in any professional activity due to a chronic illness or disability.

• C- The sons and daughters of a son who died during the life of the insured in the system, and who were under his support until the date of his death under the conditions related to sons and daughters.

• D- The father and mother of the deceased insured who were under his support until the date of his death, provided that the father is unable to work, or has exceeded sixty years of age and is not working.

• E- The grandfather and grandmother under the conditions related to the father and mother.

• F- The brothers and sisters of the deceased under the conditions referred to regarding sons and daughters, provided that they were under his support until the date of death.

9- Work injury or injuries: The accidents that occur during work or as a result of it and the occupational diseases specified in Article Twenty-Seven.

1. The Minister may issue rules that permit the employers, individually or collectively,to set up private welfare institution for the purpose of granting their workers and their workers’ families,if need be,additional benefits over and above those provided for in this Law,provided that such rules shall include the conditions for establishment of institution and the method of management and liquidation thereof.

2. The provisions of this Law shall not prejudice such other social insurance cash benefits as may have already been payable to the contributor or his family members by private institutions.

With due regard to the provisions of Articles (5) and (6), the Occupational Hazards Branch and the Annuities Branch shall apply according to the following details:

1. The Occupational Hazards Branch shall be compulsorily applied to all workers without any discrimination as to sex,nationality or age.

2.The Annuities Branch shall be compulsorily applied to all Saudi workers without any discrimination as to sex, provided that the covered worker shall be under 60 years of age upon his initial coverage under the Law. Where a worker, who has been previously covered by the Social Insurance Law, has re-engaged in an employment subject to the Law at age 60 or over, he shall be treated as follows:

• a. If he has already been entitled to pension for his previous period of contribution,he shall be given the choice either to be exempted from contribution for his new period of employment or to continue his contribution, provided that he is under 65 years of age.However, if he has reached the said age on the date of his re-engagement in employment, this Law shall not be applicable to him in respect of his subsequent period of employment.

• b. If he is not a pensioner, the Law shall apply to him irrespective of his age on the date of his re-engagement in employment.

3. For the purposes of application of the provisions of the paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article, the worker shall have  been employed by virtue of an employment contract for the benefit of one or more employers regardless of the duration, nature or form of the contract or the amount or kind of the wage paid, provided that his employment is mainly performed within the Kingdom, or that the worker is a Saudi national if he works abroad for an employer whose head office is within the Kingdom, as laid down by the Regulations.

4.The Annuities Branch shall voluntarily apply to the Saudi citizens who are engaged in liberal professions or who conduct, for themselves or in partnership with others, a commercial, industrial, agricultural or service activity, or tradesmen, or Saudi nationals employed abroad and have no employment relation with an employer whose head office is within the Kingdom, in accordance with the provisions of the Regulations.The Occupational Hazards Branch may,by decision of the Minister on the approval of the Board of Director, be applied to the said categories as provided  for by the decision.

5. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article(5),and by decision of the Minister on the approval of the Board of  Directors, special measures may be taken to extend coverage under any of the insurance branches to citizens outside the categories provided for in this Article.

6. The provisions of each of the insurance branches that will eventually be instituted shall prescribe its scope of coverage.

1.Excepted from coverage by the insurance provided for in the Law are:

• a.Civil servants and members of the armed forces and the police,who are covered under the retirement pension plans for the civil servants and military personnel.

• b.Foreign employees working in foreign international or diplomatic or military missions

• c.Workers employed in agricultural,forestry,or pastoral works.This exception does not include those subject to the Labour Law and those employed in state bodies and semi-state bodies as well as those employed in private establishments and companies which satisfy the criteria and controls prescribed by the Regulations.

• d-Sea-men including the sea-fishermen.This exception does not include those subject to the Labour Law,as well as those employed in the marine establishments and companies and fishing companies,which satisfy the criteria and controls prescribed by the Regulations.

• e.Domestic servants.

• f.Foreign workers who come to the Kingdom to engage in works which usually take no more than three months to complete,and the Regulations shall prescribe the works intended for the purposes of this provision.

• g.Artisans(workers working in their homes) h.Employer’s family members who work in the family firms where no workers other than these are employed. Nevertheless,any of thosereferred to in sub-paragraphs(g)and(h)above,may request to benefit form the provisions of this Law as provided by paragraph(4)of Article(4).

2.Some or all of the categories mentioned in sub-paragraphs(c),(d)and(e)of the preceding paragraph may be covered under the Law,by decision of the Minister,on the approval of the Board of Directors and in accordance with the provisions of Article(6).

The actual application of the social insurance branches provided for in Article(1)shall take effect in stages to be determined by a decision of the Minister on the recommendation of the Board of Directors.

1.The employers employing workers shall be liable to apply the Law and the Regulations thereof,and the application shall take effect on the day the conditions provided for in this Law and its Regulations andin the Ministerial Decisions made pursuant to the provisions of Article(6)are satisfied.

2.The Regulations shall prescribe the method of registration with the Organization of the employers and the contributors covered by this Law