Saudi Labour Law Article 75: Is Notice 30 or 60 Days?

Ask ten websites how long the notice period is under the Saudi Labour Law and you will get three different answers. Some still quote the old text: sixty days for anyone paid monthly, whichever side ends the contract. Some quote half of the new text: thirty days from the worker, sixty from the employer, without the condition that comes before it. And a widely shared post in February 2025 described the amendment as applying to "fixed-term contracts", which the article does not cover at all.

Since 19 February 2025 — the effective date of the Labour Law amendments issued by Royal Decree No. (M/44) dated 8/2/1446H — the notice period has not been a single number. It is decided by two questions: who is ending the contract, and is the wage paid monthly? Getting either one wrong turns into money that the establishment pays, or the worker loses, under Article 76.

The text before and after the amendment

The operative text of paragraph 1 reads: "If the contract is of indefinite term, and the wage is paid monthly, either party may end it for a valid reason". It then requires the worker to give written notice "at least (thirty) days before the date of termination", and the employer "at least (sixty) days" before it. Paragraph 2 puts both parties on thirty days where the wage "is not paid monthly".

The table is taken from the amendment summary published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD), and the ministry's "Labour Relations" page confirms it.

The two questions that decide the period

The amendment cut the monthly-paid worker's notice from sixty days to thirty and left the employer's at sixty. In other words, the only person the change benefits is a worker who wants to leave. A worker paid weekly, daily or by the piece saw no change at all: thirty days in both directions.

The only cell holding sixty days is the employer paying a monthly wage. It is also the most common case in any establishment, which is why "sixty" looks right most of the time — until an employee resigns and the company demands two months of notice the employee does not owe.

Article 75 does not apply to fixed-term contracts

The article's heading in the current text is "Ending an indefinite-term contract", and both paragraphs open with the same condition. A fixed-term contract is governed by other rules:

• The term runs out: the contract ends on expiry under paragraph 2 of Article 74 and needs no notice. The agreed end date is the notice.
• Early termination without a valid reason: compensated at the wage for the remaining term under Article 77, with a floor of two months' wage. We covered that in our Article 77 article.
• The worker resigns: governed by Article 79 bis, with a thirty-day acceptance window and a deferral of up to sixty — a different mechanism from notice. Details in our Article 79 bis article.
• Notice of non-renewal: no statutory text sets it. If one exists, it comes from the contract.

The reverse also holds: a worker on an indefinite contract does not "resign" in the sense Article 79 bis defines. They end the contract by notice under Article 75. An establishment that treats that exit as a resignation awaiting acceptance is applying a mechanism the worker is not subject to.

What the amendment removed without fanfare

Two phrases dropped out of the text, and we found no article of the Implementing Regulation issued after the amendment that explains their removal:

First: "must be stated". The old text required the valid reason to be stated in the notice itself. The new text still requires "a valid reason" but no longer says it must be stated. We found no official interpretation of the deletion. The practical advice does not change: state the reason in writing in the notice. Whether the reason is valid is what separates a termination with no compensation from one that triggers Article 77, and the notice is the first document requested in any dispute.

Second: "a period set in the contract". The old text delegated the period to the contract and set a floor. The new text sets the floor directly, with the words "at least". The practical result: a contract that states no notice period is no longer incomplete. The statutory period simply applies to it.

Can the contract set a longer period?

The figures in Article 75 are floors. Article 8 voids "any condition that contravenes the provisions of this Law… unless it is more beneficial to the worker". Applied here:

• A longer period binding the employer (ninety days, say): more beneficial to the worker, so valid.
• A period below the floor on either side: void, and the statutory floor replaces it.
• A longer period binding the worker, beyond thirty days: this is the contested case. "At least" permits more on its face, but it is an increase that does not favour the worker. We found no ministry interpretation on the point, and it deserves a legal opinion before an establishment builds a claim on it.

When notice is not observed: Article 76

Article 76 was not amended in 2025. Its current text: if the party that ended an indefinite contract did not observe the notice period under Article 75, "it shall pay the other party, for the notice period, an amount equal to the worker's wage for the same period, unless the parties agree on more than that".

Three points most explanations miss:

1. The obligation runs both ways. A worker who leaves without notice owes the employer the amount, exactly as the employer owes the worker.
2. The wage here is the actual wage. Article 2 defines "wage" throughout the Law as the "actual wage": basic pay plus the allowances and increments due. Computing from basic pay alone understates the amount.
3. Agreement can raise it, not lower it. The parties may agree on a larger sum, never a smaller one.

If a party served part of the period and then stopped, the usual reading — and the one our termination settlement tutorial implements — is that the payment covers only the missing days: the required period minus the days served.

Worked examples in riyals

An employee with basic pay of SAR 9,000, a housing allowance of 2,250 and a transport allowance of 750. The actual wage is SAR 12,000 a month, and the daily wage SAR 400 on a thirty-day month, which is the usual basis of calculation.

Computed from basic pay (SAR 300 a day), the first case would come to SAR 12,000 — SAR 4,000 short. Computed on sixty days under the old text, the second case would bill the employee SAR 20,000 instead of 8,000.

What happens during the notice period: Article 78

When notice comes from the employer, the worker may be absent one full day a week, or eight hours during the week, to look for another job, and is paid for that absence. The worker chooses the day or the hours, provided they tell the employer at least the day before. The right does not arise when the notice comes from the worker.

The employer may also release the worker from work during the period, with "the worker's service counted as continuous until the end of that period" and the wage for it due. That has an effect many overlook: the end-of-service date is the end of the notice period, not the last day the worker came in. The gratuity is computed up to that date, which can move the bracket in the gratuity calculation when the worker is close to a service anniversary.

Notice does not discharge Article 77

Notice concerns the period; Article 77 concerns the reason. They are independent obligations and they add up:

Two situations carry no notice at all: probation, where Article 53 lets either party end the contract and Article 54 grants no compensation (see our probation article), and the Article 80 cases, which allow dismissal without notice, compensation or award. And when the worker ends the contract, the gratuity follows the Article 85 ladder rather than the full Article 84 award.

To see how these cases intersect with the seven ways a contract ends, read our Article 74 article.

What an HR system needs

Article 75 breaks any system that stores the notice period as a single constant. The calculation needs these fields:

1. Wage payment frequency (monthly or not), as a separate value, because it selects the paragraph.
2. The terminating party (worker or employer), because it selects the period.
3. Contract type, because a fixed-term contract never enters Article 75.
4. The date notice was served and the termination date, to count the missing days.
5. The actual wage as a derived field from basic pay and allowances, not basic pay alone.
6. Any contractual notice clause, with the party it binds.

Calculate the rest of the settlement

The free Saudi labour calculator computes Article 77 compensation with its floor, and the end-of-service gratuity under Articles 84 and 85. Pay in lieu of notice is computed as in the table above: missing days multiplied by the daily actual wage. Add it to the calculator's result for the full settlement.

Is the notice period in your system right?

If your system applies sixty days to every monthly-paid employee who leaves, it has been billing resigning staff twice what they owe since February 2025. If it computes pay in lieu from basic salary, it underpays on every termination. Neither error shows until there is a dispute.

Contact us for a diagnostic session on your calculation layer: where the notice period is read from, which wage the payment is computed on, and where the four cases above fall through.

Sources: Saudi Labour Law, Article 75 as amended by Royal Decree No. (M/44) dated 8/2/1446H (in force from 19 February 2025); Articles 2, 8, 53, 54, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79 bis, 80, 84 and 85 of the same Law; Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, "Summary of the amendments made to the Labour Law" and the "Labour Relations" page.