SentivoSafety Brief

Saudi Arabia

Occupational fitness exams: new hires first, existing staff next

Saudi Arabia's Occupational Fitness and Non-Communicable Diseases Examinations Regulation was published in the official gazette, Umm Al-Qura, on 24 October 2025. Under its final article it took effect 180 days later, on 22 April 2026. It applies to employees of public entities, private establishments and non-profit organisations, whatever their contract.

The regulation covers more than a medical at the start of employment. A fitness examination is also required after a work injury, on return from medical leave of more than eight consecutive weeks, when there is doubt about a worker's ability to work safely, when a job requires periodic checks, and when a worker's job, work environment or equipment changes. Workers exposed to long-latency agents such as asbestos or ionising radiation are also examined on retirement.

Examinations are run by a team led by an occupational medicine specialist accredited by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties. The employer must provide the resources for them.

Three possible results

One rule matters for every HR and HSE team: the employer may not see medical details. It receives only the final fitness decision and any restrictions. The health record is kept for at least 10 years after the last examination or 5 years after employment ends, whichever is longer — and for workers exposed to long-latency agents, at least 30 years after the work ends and until the worker reaches 75.

The guide also has employers submit results through an approved electronic system, with employers connected to it in the second phase. In practice, the six-month window for new hires is now closing, and screening of existing workers is the next step.

Standards update

ISO 45001: the draft vote has closed. The new edition has not.

Last month we reported that the revision of ISO 45001 was at draft (DIS) stage. The 12-week international ballot on that draft has now closed. ISO's project page records the close of voting on 9 September 2026, and the result had not been published when we checked.

Incident lesson

The floor that was taken away

A UK construction company has been fined £120,000 after a carpenter fell through a first floor that was being stripped out around him. Refurbishment and fit-out teams across the GCC face the same hazard every time a floor is opened up.

In August 2022 the 59-year-old carpenter was replacing rotten floor joists in a house in Gloucestershire. Other workers were removing floorboards in the same area at the same time. Large parts of the floor had been stripped back, leaving open gaps between joists, and some joists were missing or not secured. He fell to the concrete ground floor, suffered severe head injuries and died in hospital the next day.

Lessons for your sites

• A floor being stripped is work at height. Once boards and joists come out, an ordinary floor becomes an edge with a drop below it. Plan it as work at height from the start.
• Don't open the floor around someone. Sequence the work so one team is not removing flooring where another is working.
• Close off what you open. Stop access to stripped areas, or protect every opening, before work continues.
• Work from below where you can. That is the method the company adopted afterwards: fitting joists from below with suitable access equipment, with the floor above closed off.

Falls from height accounted for over a quarter of all work-related deaths in Great Britain in 2025/26, according to HSE.

Also from recent UK cases

Technical focus

A medical exam is not a control

As fitness examinations become routine, there is a risk of treating "the worker passed his medical" as if it made the job safe. The new Saudi regulation rules that out. Article 8 says the occupational fitness examination may not be used as a substitute for individual or collective protective measures, and may not be relied on as the sole basis for protecting a worker.

The regulation allows two uses in support of prevention: checking whether control measures are working, by comparing results with measured exposure levels, and supporting decisions to adopt new or stronger preventive measures. The employer remains responsible for a safe workplace.

Toolbox talk

Floor holes and openings: five checks

Five checks for a pre-start briefing on any floor, roof or deck with holes or openings — including those created during strip-out. Figures are from US OSHA's construction fall-protection standard (29 CFR 1926 Subpart M), a widely used benchmark. Where your project specification or local code is stricter, follow that.

• Every hole is found and protected. OSHA treats any gap of 5 cm (2 in) or more as a hole. Where there is a drop of more than 1.8 m (6 ft), protect people from falling through with a cover, guardrail or fall arrest; covers also stop people stepping or tripping into holes.OSHA 1926.500(b); 1926.501(b)(4)(i)–(ii)
• Covers are strong enough. At least twice the weight of the people, equipment and materials that may be on them at once. Covers in roads and vehicle aisles must take at least twice the maximum axle load of the largest vehicle expected.OSHA 1926.502(i)(1)–(2)
• Covers are fixed in place. Secured when installed so wind, equipment or people cannot move them by accident.OSHA 1926.502(i)(3)
• Covers are marked. Colour-coded, or marked with the word "HOLE" or "COVER", to warn of the hazard.OSHA 1926.502(i)(4)
• Guardrails are the right height and strength. Top rail 1.1 m (42 in), plus or minus 8 cm, able to withstand 890 N (200 lb) applied near the top edge in any outward or downward direction.OSHA 1926.502(b)(1), (b)(3)