RIYADH, 11 July — Employees of an operation and maintenance company in Riyadh have complained of non-payment of salaries for the past 14 months!
The total amount in unpaid salaries was SR500,000.
Out of 69 employees who complained, several of them told Arab News that they had visited the company’s headquarters in the Al-Naseem district, west of the capital, many times to get their salary dues. The workers also complained that they could not visit their home countries for the past six years.
"We are going through a very difficult situation because of the indifference of the company’s owner toward our financial difficulties," the workers said. They had to depend on a nearby mosque even to get water, they added.
Fahd Suwaid Al-Ghamdi, owner of the company, Saraya Al-Yahamah, told Arab News that one of the ministries had not paid him dues worth SR600,000. "The contract with the ministry ended in January 2001 and the employees were forced to work by the ministry for an additional two months," he claimed.
Ghamdi contested the employees’ claims that they had not been paid for 14 months. "The salary dues were only for six months," he contended.
He also pointed out that he had informed security authorities that the director of the project had run away from the company. The director was searching for another job, he added.
Hamad Abdullah Al-Hodaithy, director of the Labor Office in Riyadh, had twice called the company’s owner for a meeting but he did not respond. He was also called through the Naseem police but he refused to visit the labor office. The case is now with the salary settlement committee of the Riyadh governorate, Hodaithy said.
Fahd Al-Jubair, director of operation and maintenance at the Municipal and Rural Affairs Ministry, rejected the company owner’s claim that the ministry owed money to Saraya Al-Yamamah.
"We have paid all the dues two months after the end of the contract to the Finance and National Economy Ministry," Jubair said, adding that the company’s contract with the ministry ended in March 2001.
