JEDDAH, 29 June 2005 — Al-Rajhi Commercial Foreign Exchange and Bank Albilad have failed to reach an agreement to settle their differences. Albilad officials have refused to take the responsibility for end of service benefits (ESB’s) and other contractual dues that employees are entitled to as a result of their employment with Al-Rajhi.
After the meeting, more than 30 Al-Rajhi employees went to the labor office to file a double complaint against Al-Rajhi for not paying them and Albilad for not hiring them. The employees said they were the victims of a disagreement between Al-Rajhi and Albilad. An employee said that Albilad had ignored the decision by the ministry council and Al-Rajhi simply ignored their demands for their salaries and financial dues. They said that the only thing they received was a half-month salary despite the fact that some employees had spent more than 27 years at Al-Rajhi.
Abdullah Al-Mutairi, an Al-Rajhi employee, said that the institution had given them a half-month’s salary and discharged them without warning. He said, “They gave us a letter to direct us to Albilad Bank and the bank refused to accept the letter, saying they have to sort out problem with Al-Rajhi first. The problem got worse when Al-Rajhi closed its doors on us and we do not know how can we get our rights. We live in very difficult circumstances because most of us cannot support their families.” Abdul Kareem Al-Duwayyan said, “It is very bad that this is how they treat after years of devoted work. We have experience so why should Albilad reject us? I wish the proper authorities would step in and solve the problem. The bank only took on 200 employees which is only 5 percent of the total and the rest have been let go.”
