Saudi Gazette report
AS rival organizations Kingdom-wide compete to hire the best talents among expatriate workers, many business owners have complained that the practice of employee poaching is unethical. Employers say they are angry because they have paid recruitment fees and trained their employees in order to retain them, not to let a rival company take them.
Al-Riyadh daily reports on the increasing number of employers who are calling for government intervention to curb the practice. A business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said some companies eye the best talents from rival businesses and steal them by offering them higher salaries.
“Of course, employees will be inclined to accept such an offer and will not hesitate to submit their resignation. I know some people who encouraged drivers to leave their employers and come and work for them for a higher salary and without the need to transfer the sponsorship,” the businessman said.
In some cases, an expatriate worker is convinced to leave his current job and travel back to his country just to enter the Kingdom on a new visa provided by the new employer. Business owners say they have suffered great losses because their employees have been stolen from them by their competitors. One employer, who also preferred anonymity, recalled how his longtime employee was poached by his business rival.
“Tawfeez was an excellent worker who stayed with me for five years during which I trained him to do many things. Then I noticed that he started not to show up to work and complained a lot about work until one day he came and asked me to give him a final exit due to some family circumstances,” the employer said.
“I later learned that Tawfeez had come back to the country on a new visa to work for another employer.”
Lawyer Abdulkarim Al-Qadhi described poaching as a prohibited act and something against the Shariah. He called upon the aggrieved party to file a claim at the district court against the employer who encouraged his employee to resign.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Maghlouth, a member of the Saudi Economic Association, said the poaching practice is rampant among companies, hospitals, factories and other businesses. He said employers are often forced to give their workers exit visas because they claim a family emergency requires them to resign. In reality, they return to the Kingdom on a different visa to work for a different employer.
“One of the ways we can fight this practice is to require the worker to complete the term of the contract and not allow him to travel. Even if the contract is canceled, the worker should not be allowed to return to the Kingdom until three years have elapsed since he left the country. Many employers have lost a lot of money because of this negative practice,” he said, while calling on the Ministry of Labor to curb the practice and penalize those who exploit fair competition laws.
