Why you Need to Hire
Labor Contractor
for Sewer Project

In Saudi Arabia the Labor Contractor usually takes the role of the (HR) human-resource department, therefore he performs many activities such as interviews, screening, recruiting.


The Sewer Contractor has to decide whether to recruit by himself or to hire a labor contractor who will take this responsibility on his shoulder.

The main goal is to manage the workforce in a proper way for two reasons:

1) The projects cannot be performed without the effort of the workforce.

2) The workforce represents an essential part of cost. As we know materials, equipment and labor force are the major costs that should be considered well in any pricing process.

Therefore, we can see that construction companies have three choices for dealing with labor force:

1) Assign the work to subcontractors and manage them only.

2) Recruit workers and bears their salaries and the other overhead expenses.

3) A combination of the previous two choices.

1) There are two sides for assigning the whole work to labor contractor:

Advantages of hiring workers from a labor contractor:

A) Flexibility to cope with business fluctuations and labor market, especially in cases of lack of workers and staff, sickness, staff annual leave, maternity leave, sudden leave, special projects, seasonal demand and peak times.

B) Preserve flexibility of employment between permanent staff and subcontractor workers.

C) Easy to assess the staff and the workers and ask for a replacement.

D) reduces the administration costs because the subcontractor (Labor Contractor) is responsible for recruitment, hiring, payroll, taxes and social security and so on. In the contrary, if the company took the decision to employ, then they need to hire permanent employees to look after these issues.

Disadvantages of hiring workers from a labor contractor:

A) Training: The workers here need a training, even if they know the work assigned to them, every time you hire them. They need to go through a simple training until they get familiar with the work.

B) Lack of control: They often serve more than one client at the same time, and this leads to transfer some of the workers from one project to another, resulting in favoring one client on another.

C) Wages Rate Difference: We may find differences in the wages from one project to another according to prevailing price of the labor market.

D) Discomfort arises: Hiring outside workers may show discomfort between the company's permanent workers among the contractor workers, so care should be taken when the contractor chooses the workers nationalities, professions and age.

2) Recruit labors and staff and bears their salaries and the other overhead costs:

Advantages of recruiting permanent employees:

A) Loyalty: Loyalty of the permanent staff and labors is more than the contractor workers, reflecting in a better productivity and readiness to bear more responsibilities to drive forward the company success and development.

B) Rotation: The staff in some companies, especially the small one can perform more than one job at the same time, and this gives the company the ability to rotate the employees easier.

C) Job Stability: Stability of business gives the permanent employees the ability to complete the required tasks more efficiently.

Disadvantages of hiring permanent employees:

A) Responsibly: Responsibilities towards them may exceed to their family and personal affairs.

B) Other Costs: Hiring of permanent staff, require to secure a place for work (offices), working tools, furniture, overhead expenses like paying (electricity bills, telephone and the Internet), etc. While hiring permanent workers needs to secure furnished accommodation and to secure means of transport from worker's housing to project's sites and vice versa.

C) Concerted efforts: The above points need good management by the administration dept, human-resource dept and camp boss.

Working teams:
The sewer contractor is mainly interested to provide capable workforce for performing his projects. Sometimes, because of long-distance between projects and work complexity, the contractor intentionally forms several work teams (groups) to perform a particular task in a specific place within the project.
Forming of each work team varies depending on the tasks planned to be implemented.

For example, if the company is relying on its labor force, we might form several teams to perform the following tasks:

A) Excavating and filling.
B) Structuring of manholes, reinforced bases, foundations, walls, ceilings, installation of doors and windows, flooring and stairs.
C) Dewatering.
D) Asphalting and asphalt cutting.
E) Installation of the pumping station.

If the company relies on the labor contractor workers, then we need the following:
A) Excavating contractor.
B) Structuring Contractor (Steel and Carpentry).
C) Dewatering contractor.
D) Asphalt contractor.
E) Electromechanical contractor.

Professions levels:

There are at least three levels of posts in managing projects.

For example, in sewer projects, we can find the following levels:

The first level consists of:

A) The project manager, must be experienced Civil Engineer with more than 15 years of work record, preferably in the infrastructure field, approved by the project consultant.
B) Site engineer, must be a Civil Engineer with 5-8 years work experience.
C) Site Accountant with 2-3 years works experience.
D) Administrative Officer (Personnel Officer).
E) Timekeeper.

The second level consists of:

A) Supervisors for (excavation work, dewatering work, reinforced concrete work, filling and back filling).
B) Surveyors (A Surveyor for each digging line).
C) Crane Operator.
D) Excavator Operator.
E) Backhoe Loader Operator.
F) Loader Operator.
G) Roller driver.
H) Asphalt cutter driver.
I) Light duty driver.
J) Heavy-duty driver.

The third level consists of:

A) Steel Fixers.
B) Carpenters.
C) Pipe Fitters.
D) Workers.
E) Guards.

For example, a team will consist of the following professions:

1) Supervisor for digging work (pipeline).
2) Supervisor for dewatering work.
3) Supervisor for the concrete work.
4) Supervisor for filling and back filling work.
5) Surveyor for pipes laying and installing.
6) Four workers for digging work.
7) Four workers for filling and back filling work.
8) Two workers for casting of manholes.
9) Five workers for dewatering work.
10) One plumber.
11) One carpenter.
12) One steel fixer.

The previous group can be increased or decreased, according to work need. For example, if we have one pipeline to dig, then one team is enough, but if there were two pipelines to perform, then we need to form a second group, similar to the former group.