The Saudi Binladin Group, which employs thousands of workers to clean and maintain the holy precincts and the projects of the King Abdul Aziz Endowment, sent a circular to the workers saying that their minimum monthly salary has been raised from SR350 ($93.33) to SR500 ($133.33) from March 1.
The workers will also receive an additional increase of SR50 to their SR150 food allowance.
Work in the Grand Mosque and the endowment sites ground to a halt as workers refused to leave their camps in protest at poor wages and living conditions on Sunday morning. Police were called as the striking workers were allegedly preventing other workers who wanted to work from leaving the camp.
Police arrived at the striking locations under the command of the director of Makkah police Brig. Ibrahim Al-Hamzi and helped in maintaining peace and order at the camps.
The company had to hire other workers to undertake the cleaning operations and other urgent work in the holy precincts.
Spokesman for Makkah police Maj. Abdul Mohsen Al-Maiman confirmed that the laborers returned to work on Monday. “Police did not receive any report of labor problems on Monday,” he said.
This is the second time that workers contracted with the company have gone on strike in the past three weeks.
Some 600 construction workers went on strike for two days in a row on Feb. 20 and 21 demanding unpaid salaries and better working conditions.
The workers said that they had not been paid their salaries for more than two months and that they had been denied compensation for overtime work. The workers returned to their jobs after employers met with them and promised to resolve the issues.
