MAKKAH, 3 July 2004 — Police here have opened an investigation into the case of an assault by a cleaning company employee on one of its street cleaners, Okaz newspaper reported.
More than 3,000 workers went on strike for several hours, paralyzing the cleaning operations in Makkah for several hours, causing garbage bins to remain unemptied and trash to pile up on the streets.
Jamal Hariri, deputy mayor for services, said the attack was an isolated incident and this kind of action was unacceptable. The person responsible will be punished accordingly, he added.
The dispute was eventually settled around midday and workers returned to work soon after.
“What basically happened is that one of the employees in the cleaning company assaulted another by slapping him in the face,” Hariri said.
“The assaulted worker told his colleagues of the attack and a retributory strike was called. Workers demanded the replacement of several supervisors as well as an increase in their salary from SR250 to SR300.”
One of the street cleaners told Okaz: “The salary is not enough and the food they provide us is bad. We also work long hours. All this needs to be changed.”
A source from the cleaning company denied the allegations and said that the food given to the workers was of “high quality.”
He added that the cleaners work according to their contractual hours and are not forced to do any extra. He asked the workers to be patient with their other complaints.
