RIYADH, 17 August — Three hundred and eighty-four expatriate workers at an operation and maintenance company in Riyadh who have not received their salaries for nine months have now learned that their company is planning to close down.
The foreign employees were working in Khamees Mushayt, Najran and Sharourah. Speaking to Arab News, they said they had been to the company’s head office in Riyadh to ask for their wages.
“We were shocked to learn that the company is taking steps to close down,” one of them said.
The expatriates said they came to the capital city on the basis of a letter issued on their behalf from Acting Khamis Mushayt Governor Abdullah Al-Qahtani and addressed to the Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company.
They came specifically to meet their sponsor following the cancellation of the company’s contract with a government agency.
Hamad Al-Hudaithy, director of the labor office in Riyadh, told Arab News that the salaries settlement committee was studying the workers’ case, and added that it may use the company’s arrears at the government agency to settle the workers’ claims.
He said the labor office paid SR708,000 to the workers from money it had received from the government agency it was previously trading with.
“Now only 20 percent of the workers’ wages remain unpaid and they will be paid after we receive the rest of money from the government agency,” he explained.
Arab News tried to contact the company but officials said its owner was vacationing abroad.
Last week 160 workers at a biscuit factory in Jeddah launched a strike when they did not receive salaries for 13 months.
The company management later agreed to pay the salaries in monthly installments.
But the workers accused the management of issuing dud checks, refusing to renew the iqamas of 120 workers and to pay their medical bills. Muhammad Salama, production manager of Badra factories, told Arab News that the company did not put money in bank accounts because of a halt in production and sales.
