JEDDAH, 2 July 2005 — Bank Albilad CEO, Azzam Abalkhail, announced that the case file between its employees and Al-Rajhi Commercial Foreign Exchange would be closed in stages, according to Al-Watan newspaper. After making phone calls to government officials and Abdul Rahman Al-Rajhi, Abalkhail agreed to hire all the employees in the appropriate positions after training them.
Last week, Arab News reported on the problem that arose after Albilad refused to take responsibility for end of service benefits and other contractual dues which employees are entitled to as a result of their employment with Al-Rajhi. The terms of a royal decree require Albilad to take on employees of exchange companies and institutions merged in Albilad before they can employ anyone from outside the merged institutions.
Sources in Al-Rajhi said that this decision would solve the problems of more than 1,000 employees. SR20 million is needed to pay the financial dues of these employees for the years they spent working in Al-Rajhi Commercial Foreign Exchange.
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) had to intervene to solve the problem which had been unresolved for over a month leaving the employees without a job and salary. More than 30 Al-Rajhi employees went to the labor office to file a double complaint against Al-Rajhi for not paying them and Albilad for not hiring them. Al-Rajhi is one of the eight money exchange firms that merged to form Bank Albilad. It laid off more than 1,000 Saudi and non-Saudi employees after it closed down 118 of its branch offices.
Abalkhail said that Albilad will open 30 branches across the Kingdom by the end of the year, seven of which would be women’s branches. Hundreds of female employees were also affected by Albilad’s stalling in hiring previous Al-Rajhi employees. Abalkhail said that they are now in the process of hiring female employees and training them.