While collective bargaining is illegal in Saudi Arabia, some Saudis are saying they should be able to form a body based on the model of the Saudi Journalists Association or the Saudi Retirees Association and that it should be governed by an elected body. Business owners would be banned from being members of such an organization under this proposal.
Nasser Al-Jadaani, a car company worker, said workers need their own advocacy group to fight for their rights to have a minimum wage, incremental salary increases and merit-based promotions and annual bonuses.
"Currently we are at the mercy of company managers who would grant us a salary hike or bonus only if we grovel," he said. "Under this humiliating situation, dedicated Saudi workers are sidelined and they remain forever at the salary on which they started work. They will never get any promotion while those who flatter the bosses are given pay raises and bonuses. I don't mean that all companies are like that. I know that there are a few exceptions that have a salary scale applicable to all workers and fixed conditions for promotion,” Al-Jadaani added.
Recently, the Saudi government announced a minimum wage and two-month salary bonus for government workers. But in the private sector, wages and bonuses are completely at the discretion of employers. Furthermore, the huge presence of foreign workers who are bound to their employers under the sponsorship system acts as a wage suppressor that compels job-seeking Saudis in the private sector to compete with the lower wages foreign workers are paid.
Fahd Al-Sultan, a 33-year-old real estate company worker, justified the need for a trade union of Saudi employees in the private sector, saying most companies and establishments in the Kingdom adopt a negative approach toward Saudi workers.
“How can a Saudi employee — who knows for sure that his employer will not ever give him a raise and whose wages hardly suffice to feed his family — dedicate himself in his work?” Al-Sultan asked. "The solution to this problem is providing workers the motivation to work hard. That is why they should have an incremental salary pattern, with defined working hours and with provision for paid overtime work."
Mamdouh Al-Maraashi, a private school teacher in his twenties, urged that effective and quick steps should be taken to end the suffering of Saudi employees in the private sector. “The establishment of a labor union would enable the workers to find solutions to the problems that they endure," he said. "New laws and regulations to protect the rights of private Saudi workers should be in place.”
Al-Maraashi pointed out that such an organization could also act as a third-party watchdog against companies that skirt Saudization rules, the law that assigns job quota for Saudis. Faisal Al-Surae, an employee of a petrochemical company, agreed, stressing the need for a Saudi workers union that has the authority to go after companies that illegally go around hiring Saudis to fill their Saudization quotas. He also stressed that workers in the private sector should have the same rights as those working for the government, which is the largest employer of Saudis.
Bank employee Nasser Al-Abdali said an organization dedicated to collective barraging, unlike the individual worker, can hire lawyers in the event of arbitrary dismissal of a worker by a company.
“A dismissed employee hardly gets or can get justice, and if so only after years," he said. "This is because a worker cannot afford to hire good lawyers to represent him. On the other hand, a company is protected by its legal advisers who can make life hell for a worker who complains against the company.”
Ministry of Labor spokesman Hattab Al-Anazi said the ministry is aware of the needs of all employees. The ministry last year set up a committee under Nidal Radwan, an employee of Saudi Telecom Co., to pave the way for the establishment of a national council for workers. The committee held several meetings to lay down the basic statutes, including the election regulations for the board of directors of that national council.
