Two closed Riyadh restaurants reopen

Two of the five restaurants ordered closed by the Riyadh municipality have reopened their doors after complying with requirements regarding equipment, health and sanitation.
“We had to purchase new equipment for food preservation and make changes inside the restaurant in accordance with the recommendations of the municipality's inspectors,” said the expat manager of one of the restaurants.
The other restaurant was also allowed to resume operations after the renewal of its license and compliance with the recommendations of the municipality's inspectors. He added that a restaurant staff member went to the municipality to report that its recommendations had been complied with.
“We were closed for more than one week. As a result, we lost much in terms of revenues and customer patronage. We also made sure that our staff had valid residency permits,” the restaurant manager said.
Asked about the problem regarding the three other restaurants that had also been closed, he said: “Some of their staff were part-time workers. Working part-time is not allowed under local laws and regulations.”
These workers were regular employees of a maintenance company rendering service in a local government hospital but they receive only SR600 monthly salary. “To augment their income, they work part-time at the restaurant where they also make SR 600 monthly plus free food. They also make extra from tips given by customers happy with their service,” he said.
He said that in addition to being part-time workers, they “also don't have health certificates issued by the municipality attesting that they are healthy and fit to work in a restaurant.”
Asked why one restaurant was not closed despite the fact that it had customers eating outside because all the seats inside had been occupied by other customers, he said that the inspectors had probably not noticed it.
An employee of one of the three other restaurants that remained closed told Arab News that the owners had been told to change the floor tiles. “Renovation is going on and we hope that it will be finished soon because we need our salaries,” he said.