The Makkah branch of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) has detected several instances of exploitation of gas stations workers in Jeddah.

The irregularities included bad treatment of foreign workers and forcing them to work extra hours, sometimes more than 12 consecutive hours, in addition to denying them their needed rest hours. Such practices violate their human rights and other lawful rights, the HRC said.

A reliable source at the commission told a local newspaper that the rights body informed the competent authority on the importance of maintaining the lawful rights of workers during working hours, and impressed on the private sector the need to grant the workers enough rest hours and to adhere to the Islamic principles and values in treating workers humanely.

The source said the commission spotted a number of irregularities at gas stations, including making them work long hours without rest and granting them only one day off a week.

He attributed the numerous violations by these gas stations to the weak control and poor monitoring of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and inspectors of the labor offices, in addition to the absence of the supervision by municipal inspectors.

The source stressed the fact that the competent authorities should continuously monitor the stations to avoid these irregularities and damages.

“They should follow the lead of the Civil Defense in monitoring the gas stations to ensure they adhere to the required safety measures,” said the source. “The society addressed many official bodies on the poor performance of the gas stations, including the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the labor offices and municipalities, in addition to the General Presidency for Meteorology and Environment Protection, emphasizing also the importance of monitoring and following up on their work to avoid irregularities.”

He pointed out that the commission submitted the propositions of residents and citizens concerning the implementation of new mechanisms to protect them from the dangers of gasoline, which involved connecting the pipelines with an integrated network to avoid the risks, and replace the existing gas pumps with electronic ones to ease the burden on workers.

Cases of labor disputes in Saudi Arabia stood at 12,000 lawsuits during the past eight months. The Ministry of Labor said labor dispute settlement committees resolved 1,796 cases with reconciliation between parties. There were 3,530 cases being processed during the same period.