ALKHOBAR, 15 July — British Aerospace (BAE) management has been distressed by the intense negative publicity that the company has received globally since last week.
The negative news reports began as the company’s Saudi staff members launched legal action against BAE in a dispute over contract modifications.
A BAE management representative, who asked to remain anonymous, asserted that BAE was not in any way the instigator of moves to change the contracts of their Saudi employees, known as contract manning schedule (CMS) staff.
The spokesman emphasized that BAE has a strong commitment to the training and development of its Saudi workforce and the replacement, over time, of foreign workers with qualified Saudi employees. The number of Saudis employed by the company has grown from 800 in 1993 to 2,580 in 2001. In that same time the number of expatriate employees declined from 4,080 to 2,790. BAE has introduced training for young Saudis to qualify as aircraft technicians and the company claims that a newly launched management development program will build a cadre of Saudi managers over the next decade.
BAE management in Riyadh has put out the following statement to clarify its position in regards to the current labor problems:
"In asking Saudi CMS staff to sign up to new employment agreements and paying employees by check, BAE Systems is carrying out the instructions of its customer, the Royal Saudi Air Force. As they work on air bases and other premises of the Air Force as seconded workers, we are complying with these instructions.
"The company’s expatriate workers have been subject to an 84 days’ contractual notice period and can be terminated at any time at the request of the Saudi Arabian government. Many expatriate workers are contracted to train Saudi nationals to replace them. In addition, their attendance and performance at work have been subject to stringent validation for some time.
"The overwhelming majority of our Saudi employees — 70 percent — have accepted the new agreements. Though we sympathize with those employees who are worried about the future, these actions are being taken due to budgetary pressures within the Saudi Arabian market. The role that our employees play for the Royal Saudi Air Force is important and well regarded by the customer and the company and it is to preserve this regard that we are reacting to forces of the marketplace. In this respect we have the support of the British government and the British Ministry of Defense.
"We believe that the new measures are part of a much wider set of reforms affecting many areas of the public sector in Saudi Arabia, as the government seeks to achieve greater efficiencies and cost-effectiveness. The company applauds these reforms."
BAE has advised that they will not speculate on any further developments in the contract dispute. They have requested media representatives to contact the Al Yamamah Project Office for all comments in the future.
