Efforts on to solve French staff’s pay delay problem

JEDDAH: There has been no breakthrough yet in the salary delay issue of French employees of Saudi Oger, even as their lawyer threatened to file a request demanding lifting the seizure ban on all assets of Saad Hariri, chairman of the company.
A source at the French Embassy in Riyadh told local media that the salaries of the French employees have been delayed by 10 months in a row.
“Talks between the Saudi and French governments to solve the salary crisis are still under way, but a solution is yet to be found,” the source told local media.
A number of employees have filed cases against the company in French courts. A French lawyer, who is handling the case, threatened to file a request demanding lifting the seizure ban on all properties of Saad Hariri, Saudi Oger chairman, if the French employees do not receive their entitlements and benefits.
The source did not confirm earlier media reports that some 200 French employees have filed a lawsuit against the company, adding that a large number of the French employees left the Kingdom, while others are still waiting for the issue to be resolved.
The source said that the problem facing the Saudi Oger staff in general and the French employees in particular concerns medical insurance at hospitals. It seems that their insurance has expired and not yet been renewed by the company, and the insurance premiums have not been paid for more than eight months.
The French government started talks with medical insurance companies to solve the problem of the French staff, but so far no time frame has been defined for the same.
It has been reported that the delayed salaries which Saudi Oger must pay to staff amount to $800 million (SR3 billion), while the total debt of the company stands at $4 billion (SR15 billion).