For international employers · Construction & Civil
Falisha Manpower recruits masons from Pakistan for building contractors, developers, infrastructure contractors and finishing companies in the Gulf, Europe and Central Asia. Requirements range from a handful of block masons for a villa compound to complete masonry gangs, with helpers and a chargehand, for high-rise infill walls or a housing scheme. As a BEOE-licensed Overseas Employment Promoter (OEP Licence No. 4035), we run each recruitment through Pakistan’s regulated emigration system, from sourcing and trade testing through to Protector of Emigrants clearance.
“Mason” covers more ground than most job titles. On Gulf sites the work is mostly concrete blockwork filling a reinforced-concrete frame; European employers more often want clay brickwork, sometimes fair-faced; other projects need natural stone walling or stone cladding. Many employers also expect a mason to plaster, render or tile. A mason who builds fast, accurate block partitions may never have laid facing brick or dressed stone, so we start from your wall types, units, mortar, finish and the adjacent tasks you expect, and shortlist masons whose verified work matches.
Before you interview anyone, shortlisted masons build a test panel to your specification at a trade-test facility, checked for line, level, plumb and joints by an assessor or by your own engineer, in person or over video. You then interview and choose; we coordinate the medical, documentation, emigration formalities and travel so the masons arrive in step with your structural programme.
Roles & specialisations
Matched to your specification and the work itself, not just a job title.
The core of Gulf masonry: hollow and solid block infill and partition walls built inside a concrete frame, including ties to columns, lintels over openings and bed-joint reinforcement where the specification calls for it.
Masons who build in clay or concrete brick using standard bonds such as stretcher, English and Flemish bond. More often requested by European and Central Asian employers, and in the Gulf for boundary and feature walls.
For exposed brick or block that will not be plastered — consistent joint widths, tooled joints, clean faces and careful blending of unit colours. A smaller group than general masons, and worth specifying separately.
Masons experienced with autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) and other lightweight or insulated blocks laid on thin-bed adhesive, where an accurate first course and clean cutting matter more than mortar handling.
Walling in natural stone — rubble, coursed and dressed (ashlar) work — including selecting, cutting and shaping stone by hand or with power tools, for boundary, landscape, retaining and heritage walls.
Fixing natural stone or marble facings to walls with mechanical anchors or adhesive. This sits closer to finishing than to walling, so specify the fixing system your project uses.
Masons who also apply internal plaster and external render — useful on villa projects and smaller sites where one tradesperson takes a wall from blockwork to a finished surface.
A specialist trade lining furnaces, kilns, boilers and process heaters with firebrick and other refractory materials in steel, cement, petrochemical and power plants. Sourced and tested separately from building masons.
Experienced masons who set out walls from drawings, run a gang with its helpers, coordinate openings with MEP trades and check walls before they are plastered or inspected.
Before you hire
The distinctions that decide whether a hire works on your project.
The three share hand tools but not much else. Block masons work quickly with large units inside a concrete frame; bricklayers need bonding patterns and tighter joint control; stone masons must select, cut and dress irregular material. State your main walling type and have candidates tested in it — experience in one does not transfer automatically to the others.
You can recruit masons only and use separate plasterers and tilers, or recruit multi-skilled masons who cover both. Multi-skilled masons suit small and scattered sites; on large projects, specialist gangs usually give better finishes and steadier output. If plastering or tiling is part of the job, test it as a separate skill rather than taking it on trust.
Daily output depends on unit size, wall height, openings, access and how well helpers keep materials coming, so a single output figure means little from one project to the next. A mason chasing output can leave walls out of plumb or joints unfilled — faults that disappear under plaster and reappear as cracking. Test for accuracy first, observe working pace during the test, and agree an output expectation that fits your site conditions.
Most Gulf blockwork sits inside a reinforced-concrete structure, so masons must tie into columns, leave the specified joint under beams and slabs, build in lintels and form openings for MEP services. Masons from frame-and-infill sites handle these interfaces with less supervision than those whose experience is mainly load-bearing housing.
A mason is only as productive as the supply of mortar and units reaching the wall. Decide how many helpers serve each mason, who erects and moves working platforms, and how many chargehands you need for setting out. We can recruit helpers and chargehands alongside the masons so each gang arrives complete.
Your requirement
The more precise the brief, the more precise the shortlist. Anything you are unsure of, we work out with you.
Standards & qualifications
Qualifications, codes and licences candidates may hold or be assessed against — you decide which apply.
British code of practice for site workmanship on brick, block and stone masonry, frequently referenced in UK-style specifications used by Gulf consultants.
The US building code and specification for masonry structures (formerly ACI 530/530.1). TMS 602 sets construction site tolerances and is referenced on projects that follow American practice.
The European standard for the design of masonry structures; Part 2 covers selection of materials and execution of masonry. Relevant to European employers, alongside each country’s national annex.
Blocks and mortar are usually specified to standards such as ASTM C90 and ASTM C270, or BS EN 771-3 and BS EN 998-2. Masons build with the units and mix the project specifies; testing of the materials is carried out by a laboratory, not by the mason.
British codes of practice for natural stone cladding and lining, and for wall and floor tiling — relevant when the role extends into stone fixing or tiling.
Saudi Arabia’s practical and theoretical skills testing for expatriate workers, delivered in Pakistan through NAVTTC-approved test centres and mandatory before travel for occupations notified by Takamol. Stone mason, builder, plasterer and tile setter are among the construction trades tested. We confirm at requirement stage whether it applies to the occupation on your visa.
Assessment
Arranged to your criteria before you interview, so you evaluate ability rather than a CV.
We check what each mason has actually built — block, brick or stone; frame infill or load-bearing; plastered or fair-faced — through experience letters, references and, where available, photographs of their own work.
Shortlisted masons build a short wall in your unit type with a corner or return and an opening, so setting out, bonding, course levels, plumb, joint thickness and mortar filling are all tested together.
The finished panel is checked with spirit level, straightedge and plumb line against the tolerances you set or your specification references. You decide the pass criteria; the assessor or your engineer records the result.
Where the role includes plastering, rendering, tiling or stone fixing, each is tested on its own panel, so a strong mason with weak finishing skills is identified before selection rather than on site.
Your engineer, a third party you nominate or a live video session can witness the test. For Saudi Arabia, we coordinate the Skill Verification Program test where the visa occupation requires it.
How it works
From your requirement to workers on site.
We confirm wall types, units, mortar, finish, adjacent skills, tolerances, headcount including helpers and chargehands, and the occupation title for the visa.
We search our candidate database and sourcing network for masons whose experience matches your walling type, rather than collecting every CV that says “mason”.
Work histories and references are checked, and candidates whose experience lies in a different type of masonry, or who claim finishing skills they cannot evidence, are filtered out before testing.
Masons build the test panel, plus any plastering, tiling or stone panels, to your criteria, with your engineer attending or following on video if you choose.
You interview the masons who passed — online, in person or during a recruitment visit to Pakistan — and confirm your selection.
Where required, the Saudi Skill Verification test is scheduled; selected masons complete the medical examination the destination requires, and we coordinate attestation and the work-visa file.
BEOE formalities and Protector of Emigrants clearance are completed for each mason before departure, as Pakistani law requires for overseas employment.
Masonry follows the structure up a building, so arrivals can be phased to the floors released by the frame — avoiding idle gangs at the start and shortages at the peak.
Sourcing
Pakistan’s 2017 Census recorded baked brick, block or stone as the outer-wall material of most housing units. Masonry is everyday work on Pakistani sites, and masons typically learn it there under experienced tradesmen as well as through vocational courses.
Pakistani construction workers have built on Gulf projects for decades, so many masons have already worked on frame-and-infill blockwork under consultant inspection and in summer heat. We confirm that experience for each candidate rather than assume it.
A measured test panel shows whether a mason builds true, level and plumb — things a CV cannot tell you, and faults that are costly to put right once a wall has been plastered.
Pay & terms
The employer decides masons’ pay, and it is fixed in the employment contract. The biggest differences come from the type of masonry — fair-faced brickwork, stone and refractory work generally command more than standard blockwork — together with any finishing skills, chargehand responsibility, overtime arrangements and whether accommodation, transport and food are provided or paid as allowances.
Some employers add output-linked incentives on blockwork. If you do, define in writing how output is measured and which quality checks the work must pass, so the incentive does not reward speed at the expense of plumb walls and filled joints. We explain the full package to candidates before they accept, which helps avoid early resignations.
Masons must not be charged unlawful recruitment fees. The terms you agree are set out in the employment contract, which forms part of the file reviewed for each worker’s emigration clearance in Pakistan.
Compliance & trust
Falisha Manpower recruits under Overseas Employment Promoter Licence No. 4035, issued by the Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment (BEOE), Government of Pakistan.
Every selected worker is processed through BEOE and Protector of Emigrants formalities before departure — the legal route for Pakistani workers taking overseas employment.
Workers are not charged unlawful fees and their passports are not retained. Terms are documented in the employment contract before travel.
You set the specification and the acceptance criteria, and you make every final hiring decision — we source, coordinate, document and mobilise.
Read our quality policy, anti-trafficking statement, or report recruitment fraud. Licence status can be checked with the BEOE.
Sectors
Destinations
Subject to active employer demand and each destination’s visa and work-permit requirements.
FAQ
References: Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment (BEOE) · NAVTTC — Pakistan–Saudi Arabia Skill Verification Program (Takamol) · Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development — Professional Verification Program launch · Pakistan Bureau of Statistics — 2017 Census housing tables · BSI — British Standards Institution · The Masonry Society (TMS)
Last updated 10 November 2026. General guidance for employers; destination rules change, so requirements are confirmed for each recruitment.
Send us the role, numbers, specification, destination and joining date. We will review it, confirm what the assessment must prove, and give you a realistic plan.
