"Saudi Arabia ensures Filipino staff paid after Azmeel 'lock-out'", 25 October 2018

Filipino employees of Saudi Arabia’s Azmeel Contracting Corporation will be paid their overdue wages and provided flights home after the contractor’s “lock-out”, according to a statement by the Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Philippines News Agency (PNA) reported that the first batch of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have already been repatriated. Citing unnamed reports, PNA added that the Jubail-headquartered contractor had “barred its employees from their place of work after the company’s assets were frozen by the Saudi government”. The reasons for Azmeel’s lock-out were not provided by the report. Meanwhile, in a statement, DOLE said that the OFWs were also not issued... residence permits, adding that the employees were “given a different contract by their company”... Silvestre Bello III, the Labour Secretary of the Philippines, said on 24 October 2018 that in order to fast-track the repatriation process, “we will shoulder first the travel expenses and Azmeel will just pay us”... Bello added that Azmeel had promised to provide the OFWs’ overdue salaries, as well as pay the fare for their travel back home. This agreement between Azmeel and the Filipino government, Bello added, had been witnessed by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Labour...