AL-KHARJ: Women employees of a company that operates school cafeterias in Al-Kharaj have filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labor about various irregularities of their company. The complaint relates to payment of salaries less than what is stipulated in the contract.

Director of Al-Kharj Labor Office Hassan Al-Asiri said the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) will deal with the complaint. A company representative alleging that the complaint was malicious threatened to replace them with new workers.

Al-Asiri said if it is found that women receive a monthly salary of less than SR3,000, the office will take up the issue with the company concerned and see that they get paid as per the GOSI rules.

A number of workers said their salaries range between SR800 and SR1,200, while in fact they should be getting SR3,000, which is the minimum contracted wage.

Women employees stated that aside from sales, they carry goods and supervise the cafeteria as part of their work but only get SR1,200.

An official source in Al-Kharj education department accused Tatweer company of signing contracts in a careless manner and not monitoring the prescribed salary payments by the cafeteria operating company.

He said two years ago the education directorate was assigned the signing of contracts with the cafeteria operating company and upon royal decree they were forced to pay a minimum wage of SR3,000, but delegating this task to Tatweer company infringed on the rights of workers because they did not monitor whether salaries were being paid in full.

He added that the operating company can pay half of the salary if it applies for the Human Resource Development Fund, which will cover the other half bringing the total salary to SR3,000 as per the rules and regulations, but the company refrained from doing that because Hadaf delays the payment of the salaries.b He said the education directorate is only concerned with supervising the cafeterias and making sure the operating company abides by the health rules.




Representative of the operating company Bahjat Al-Sayed said workers’ complaints are “malicious” and there is a long waiting list of women who wish to work for the company.

He confirmed that the labor office in Al-Kharj forced them to pay the entire premium of social insurance, which has taken their salary to SR1,500 instead of SR1,200. He pointed out that contracts signed with them stipulate that they be paid SR1,500. The contracts are registered with the GOSI.

Employees, who receive SR800 as their salary in cash, told the company they didn’t want to be registered with GOSI because they get a stipend from Hafiz and they were afraid their payments will be stopped.

Lawyer Mohammad Al-Bajjad said no royal decree or circular has been issued by the Council of Ministers about the minimum wage, and the matter is left to the contracting parties.

He added that the cafeteria employing workers for a sum of SR800 without official contracts is a legal violation, while workers who get SR1,200 tends to mean that they pay the total value of social insurance, which is a violation of social insurance law, because both parties should bear the cost.

Al-Bajjad called on relevant authorities to come with a system related to minimum wage to protect employees and maintain their integrity.

Spokesman of GOSI Abdullah Al-Abedaljabbar, said wages that are subjected to subscription in social insurance start from SR1,500 to SR45,000. He said the organization’s tasks include monitoring employers who don’t pay insurance subscriptions, or those who don’t register all their employees, or register them under false wages.

He added that subscribers are responsible for checking the accuracy of their registration. If employers violate these rules they will be banned from receiving the organization’s certificate and their employees will be registered retroactively, in addition to paying fines for delay.