JEDDAH: Two hundred and fifty-five employees have been working without pay for 11 months. For the past 14 years, the company has repeatedly delayed paying their salaries. Some of the workers are in the Kingdom illegally because the company did not renew their iqamas.
A hearing in the case will take place Monday. The delayed salaries and end of service benefits add up to a total of SR28 million, a source told Arab News.
Many of the workers have been working for the company for up to 20 years with salaries ranging between SR1,500 and SR1,200. Asian and Arab nationals, as well as a few Saudis, have filed a lawsuit at the Ministry of Labor three times in a row. The first time was in 2009, when their company promised to pay them if they dropped the case. The company paid, but it delayed payment again, which forced the workers to submit another complaint mid-2011. As nothing happened they filed another case last December.
The owner of the company has meanwhile decided to sell the Riyadh branch of the company leaving the workers in a state of uncertainty. "We really don't know what will happen to us. Will the new owner keep us, or will we be deported without ever getting paid?" asked one of the employees.
The workers all spoke on condition of anonymity. They expressed their fear that they would not get paid their delayed salaries and end of service benefits if their case went to press. "So far we have been fed by the company but we did not get paid. Our families are suffering back home. They just cannot survive and have used all the savings left. We are stuck," said a worker.
The majority of the workers said they know that staying with the company is "useless", yet they are not looking for another sponsor, fearing they would not get paid if they transferred their iqamas to other sponsors.
Some said that they were shocked this is taking place in the Kingdom and urged authorities to interfere in the case. "We are shocked as the case has not been solved by the Ministry of Labor, are they there just to receive complaints? We have been part of the Saudi economy. The least that could be done is help us get paid," said one of the workers.
The expatriates in the company have been in touch with their embassies and were told they couldn't expect any help, since the case was already in the hands of the Ministry of Labor.
Local custom prevents the naming of companies or individuals who could be potentially involved in legal dispute.
In 2010 the case drew the attention of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), which wrote two reports about the matter. Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director, said then that these workers were trapped and that "Saudi labor authorities need to make sure that companies can't get away with violating workers' rights."
© Arab News 2012
