Mahmoud Ahmad
I received many emails since I published my last article titled "Stranded against their will". Most of the emails and comments had a similar refrain and I’ll just highlight the gist of it. The mails demanded more effort to be done such that there’s swift action against employers that desist from giving salaries from months to end and to end the pain and suffering of the oppressed. I thank them for the time and effort.
I, however, also received a number of emails from readers who are still suffering at the hands of their sponsors or companies they are working for. Willing to help in any way I can, I asked the readers to speak up and put their issue on record and present whatever evidence they have against their company/employer that proves the case against them and we at the newspaper offered to write about it.
What shocked me was that almost all of them did not want to speak on record and preferred to continue to suffer in silence. Nearly every responder either went silent or replied back asking not to make their case public. In some cases, after an initial burst of courage, the employee or the group developed cold feet and backed out of a confrontational course.
One of the cases I received was of a group of people working in a company that has been suffering from late salaries and ill treatment from their managers. For three months the employee who approached us and eight other workers did not receive their salaries. I asked him if he is willing to come forward and state the group’s case and bring evidence of salary delay so we would write about the issue.
He asked for time to consult with his group and called me after reaching the conclusion that they would not like to speak about it and hoped to reach a peaceful solution with the company. He said that he and his friends have families to feed and cannot afford to go on a head-to-head battle with the company.
Another case was that of a Filipina, who is working in a laboratory as a technician. Her Iqama (residential permit) had expired and her hospital did not renew it. As a result she suffered a lot. She approached the newspaper to write her story. We sent a reporter to hear her out and were set to write about it. She, however, called the reporter the next day and told her that she did not want to go on record as per her co-workers’ advise. She told the reporter that she is no match to the hospital management because they are well connected and, can turn her life into a living hell. This is what the Filipina claimed.
Sometimes back, a woman of Arab nationality told us about a beauty salon female employee’s case. The salon employee, when contacted by us, said that she suffered under her employer who did not provide her with accommodation and forced her to work long hours. She told the paper that after the salon shut, she and other workers cleaned it and slept on the floor. The salon is not a place to sleep in as it reeked of the beauty products used during the day. Two days before we ran the story, she called us and asked not to publish the story because her sponsor is very well connected with government officials and she needs this job to support her family and sick mother back home. She told us that she is the lone support for her sick mother and her young brothers and she will endure any pain just to provide for them.
The same, by the way, goes for many Saudis who prefer to suffer in silence against violent managers because they believe that this job is as good as it gets. Many times I meet with young Saudis who are suffering from injustice and do nothing about it. They endure the injustice and silently search for another job. The difference here is that Saudis have a choice to effect a change, however, the fear of losing the Iqama grounds the expat workers.
I am in no position to judge them or even to describe their action of backing out at the nth moment as poor judgment as I am not in their situation. Some may argue that they deserve what they are getting because they agreed to be in this position when they had the choice to complain. The same people may argue that it is because of them that injustices at work places will continue and bad sponsors or company management will continue to flourish without fear.
On the other hand, victims develop cold feet when they make supporting their love ones back home as the main priority. The illusion that a bad sponsor or a company management will always win, is engraved in their minds. They always believe that no matter what they do they will end up losing because a sponsor is very well connected with government officials or a company management has lawyers that will always win and know how to play the game correctly at court.
From my experience, it is always a group of workers together that have the courage to file a complaint against a bad company or a sponsor and the least they can do as a form of protest, is to go on strike, like many cases that happened with some companies here. It is always a lone worker who is afraid to fight back because a win may mean deportation or losing their job. In either case I see no solution on the horizon over this sensitive issue.
The writer can be reached at [email protected] Twitter: @anajeddawi_eng
