Stranded workers in Saudi Arabia plead for help as economy falters
الملخص
Date Reported: 22 أغسطس 2016
الموقع: السعودية (المملكة العربية)
الشركات
United Seemac - Employerالفئة المتأثرة
Total individuals affected: 500
عمال مهاجرون: ( Number unknown - الهند , البناء , Gender not reported ) , عمال مهاجرون: ( Number unknown - اندونيسيا , البناء , Gender not reported ) , عمال مهاجرون: ( Number unknown - باكستان , البناء , Gender not reported ) , عمال مهاجرون: ( Number unknown - الفيلبين , البناء , Gender not reported ) , عمال مهاجرون: ( Number unknown - اليمن , البناء , Gender not reported )القضايا
الحق في الغذاء , Precarious/Unsuitable Living Conditions , Restricted mobility , احتجاز وثائق الهوية و السفر و العمل , Personal Health , Wage Theft , الحرمان من حرية التنقلالرد
Response sought: Yes, by Journalist
الإجراءات المتخذة: Two strikes took place outside the company office a month after the situation was reported. Workers stated they had filed cases with the labour court in 2015.
نوع المصدر: News outlet
Workers at a construction company in Saudi Arabia have issued an urgent plea for help, saying they are trapped and facing starvation because their employer is refusing to pay salaries or grant them permission to leave the country. Foreign staff at building firm United Seemac told MEE [Middle East Eye] the company's 500-plus employees have not been paid in months and that both the Saudi government and their embassies have done little to solve their increasingly desperate crisis...
One Pakistani worker, who has not been paid in 10 months, said no one is helping them because they do not work for one of the kingdom’s larger companies...“Nobody knows the situation for employees working at small companies...All the attention is on the big companies – it’s easy to ignore us because we are not so many people."
[The company's] owner declined to answer any questions in several telephone calls with MEE. However, the company’s general manager...told MEE that it is unable to pay employees because the government has failed to pay them for completed contract work.
Saudi authorities have repeatedly said they are trying to solve the problem of unpaid workers. King Salman has ordered companies including Saudi Oger to pay staff the money they are owed, although there has been little official comment about the issue of unpaid government contracts...[also refers to Saudi Binladin Group].