How to complain: amicable settlement on Qiwa, and a MOHRE complaint
The official complaint does not need a broker’s fee. In Saudi Arabia it starts with amicable settlement on Qiwa, then the labour court. In the UAE it starts with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. The file is papers, not memory.
The body that decides a wage or a contract is not a WhatsApp group and not an office that promises “someone inside”. In Saudi Arabia it is the Ministry of Human Resources through Qiwa, then the labour court. In the UAE it is the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, then the court if settlement does not close it. The two paths are different. Do not open a Saudi complaint on a Dubai contract.
Before you press send
Put in one folder: the registered contract, the iqama or the Emirates ID, the payslips or photos of the transfers, the message in which you asked for the right and its date, and any leave, warning or report. A complaint with no attachment becomes talk against talk. If the subject is a wage that never arrived, prepare the three numbers in the Mudad guide or the UAE bank statement. If the subject is an absence report, do not disappear while the complaint runs. The absence guide.
In Saudi Arabia
The service is called amicable settlement. It is filed from Qiwa or the ministry channel, and it does not charge the worker a fee on this path. The guidance number is 19911. Write the request specifically: the month, the amount, or the clause you say was broken. Keep the request number. If settlement does not end it, the path moves to the labour court, and the deadlines appear in the notice, not in a colleague’s advice. Do not sign, in a settlement meeting, a waiver whose figure you have not read. Someone who offers to “file it for you” for a payment is not a member of staff on that service.
In the UAE
File from the ministry’s app, its website, or the number published on mohre.gov.ae, not from a broker’s card. File while you are still in the country if you can. Following up after you have travelled is harder, which is also said in the guide to ending a contract. Attach the registered contract, not the WhatsApp message alone. If the dispute is about gratuity, the basic wage on the contract is the figure, not the all-in salary.
Deadlines and the shape of the form change. The point of this page does not: an official channel, a file, a request number, and no money to a broker. What to do in the days the wage is short, before you reach a complaint, is written in the unpaid-wages guide.
In the meeting, and after it
A settlement meeting is not a court, and it is not a waiver. You hear the establishment’s offer, you state your figure, and you can decline to sign. Signing for an amount lower than your slips prove is a waiver. Ask for a copy of the minutes. If the file moves to the labour court in Saudi Arabia, the deadlines in the notice matter more than any date a colleague remembers. Missing the appointment can weaken your claim more than a weak paper does.
In the UAE, if the complaint is not closed at the ministry, the court path has fees and steps published on the ministry’s site, not at an office that says “the case is guaranteed”. Nobody guarantees a judgment. Someone who asks for a fee before reading your contract is promising a result he does not hold. You can start yourself on the official channel, and then use whoever you choose after a request number exists.
Keep the number. A photo of the screen that shows the request number and the date is what proves you moved inside the deadline, if someone argues that you did not. Send the number to yourself by email if you can. Do not leave it only on a company phone.
Sources
Rules and fees change and differ by country and employer. Always check with the official authorities before paying or signing anything.