It seems that those working in a government department that deals with labor issues are more concerned about protecting the rights of the foreign workers and for them to be fairly treated by their Saudi employers and sponsors, than with protecting the rights of the employers and sponsors.
Workers, too, have obligations toward their employers and must ensure that the sponsors too get their rights.
There are long lists of rules and regulations designed to ensure that the rights of foreign workers are guaranteed.
The labor departments and offices oblige sponsors to abide by the regulations, reminding them time and again that expatriate workers must receive their rights in full, especially when they leave the Kingdom finally.
But, what about the rights of Saudi sponsors and employers?
The entire state apparatus is siding with the worker.
Leaning heavily in favor of one party to ensure the system guarantees the workers’ rights, would only do injustice to the other party, the sponsors.
The workers have rights and obligations toward their sponsors and these must be equally protected.
The labor laws clearly state that the rights of both parties should be protected.
But in reality it is the sponsors who are more pressured to honor their obligations toward their workers. When a worker runs away from his sponsor and illegally moves from one part of the country to another in search of work, this is a loss to the sponsor.
But no one acts to ensure the sponsor is compensated for the financial losses he incurs as a result; money paid for recruiting the worker, bringing him to the Kingdom and providing him with other requirements.
No one moves to compensate the employer for the losses he incurs as a result of his business being affected by the prolonged absence of runaway workers.
When the worker is finally caught by the police, sometimes after several years, all that is done is returning him to the sponsor, who is then asked to pay for his return ticket.
What should happen is for the authorities to ask the runaway worker to compensate his sponsor for all the losses he incurred as a result of the worker’s breach of the employment contract.
Not only that, most of the runaway workers roam the country freely settling in the place of work of their choice.
When they decide it is time to return home they give themselves up to the passport department police to enjoy a free-of-charge return trip home.
Protecting the rights of contracting parties is a two-way process and that should not be done in such a way as to benefit one party at the expense of the other.
