ALKHOBAR: An official spokesman for BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia said the company had never broken local labor laws. He was responding to a case that has been brought against the company by some employees. It is being heard by the Labor Office in Alkhobar.
“We have been in this country for the last 35 years and all our operations and actions and decisions are always in conformity with local laws,” said Monther Tayeb, the Riyadh-based director of public relations for BAE Systems.
“Yes, we have heard and seen the reports in local newspapers that some of our employees have issues with us and that they have taken us to the Labor Office,” he said.
“We have submitted all our legal documents to the Labor Office in Alkhobar and will wait until April for the Labor Office to issue its judgment,” said Tayeb.
According to him, BAE Systems employs more than 4,500 people throughout the Kingdom. “More than half of our employees are Saudi nationals,” he said and pointed out: “Our work force is well educated and highly qualified.”
Indirectly referring to the dissatisfied employees, Tayeb said: “I am sure they understand the local laws very well. If any of our employees have any concerns, their first choice should be the right department within the company. All our procedures and all our contracts and all our documents are completely compliant with Saudi laws.”
Tayeb said he did not know the exact number of employees who have gone to the Labor Office. “All I can say is that their number does not exceed 30.”
BAE Systems are the main contractors for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF). “We support RSAF wherever they are located and based. Since RSAF has a base in Dhahran, we are there,” Tayeb pointed out.
According to reports in local newspapers, the Labor Office ruled on Sunday that it would announce its verdict in April. “The postponement of the announcement of the Labor Office’s verdict followed a demand from BAE Systems’ lawyer to study the evidence presented by the employees against the company,” said a report in Al-Yaum newspaper.
The newspaper report quotes the employees as accusing the company of violating the Kingdom’s labor laws and of not honoring contractual obligations. They allege that they have been working with the company for the last several years on unspecified contracts. They also allege that they were discriminated against in favor of British and other foreign workers of the company.
In their complaint to the Labor Office, they also alleged that the British company was forestalling implementation of a decision taken by an interim panel at the Labor Office in Alkhobar.
The panel, according to the newspaper, ordered BAE Systems to follow Saudi regulations and to unfreeze the employees’ allowances, with retrospective effect, and to merge those amounts with the basic salary.
The employees expressed dissatisfaction because of the discriminatory treatment they have been suffering from the company for the last several years. “Saudi employees at BAE Systems face arbitrary decisions and contracts,” one of the employees was quoted as alleging in the newspaper report.
The employees allege that they began facing problems eight years ago and that the Labor Office had issued verdicts in their favor “but the company ignored those verdicts and refused to implement those orders.”
The employees said most of them had been working with BAE Systems for the last 20 years and that they had received no salary increases from 1996 to 2006.
In the Labor Office hearings, BAE Systems lawyer rejected the employees’ argument saying all contracts were subject to changes. “The contract is signed on the basis of the agreement of both parties,” the lawyer said and denied allegations that the company had violated employee rights.
