Fleeing from unpaid workers, Binladin official injures 5

JEDDAH: Five construction workers were reportedly injured after a Bin Laden company official hit them with his car on Wednesday morning as he was trying to get away from a group protesting salary delays of four months.
The incident took place at a project run by the company at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah. The Labor Ministry has since suspended all services to the company for failing to comply with the Wage Protection System.
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, media director of the ministry in Makkah region, said the ministry had received several complaints about the delays, which involves 1,150 workers on final exits. He said the company has promised to pay the workers soon.
Meanwhile, spokesman of the General Authority for Civil Aviation Abdullah Al-Kharif reportedly said that an investigation has been launched by the security agencies.
Eyewitnesses told a local daily that the workers had gathered at the project site to protest when they saw an official leaving. They rushed to his car but he drove away, hitting some of them.
A human rights activist and researcher Maatoq Al-Sharief said construction companies delay workers’ wages when the government delays payments to them for completing its projects. This was a problem in the Kingdom’s construction sector, he said.
He told Arab News that delaying workers’ wages violates all international labor regulations. It was not enough to block services of companies doing so, but for the role of the country’s labor courts to be enhanced to protect workers, he said.