By Sultan Al-Maimouni
MADINAH – Several former employees of King Fahd Qur’an Printing Complex have approached the Labor Office here seeking its intervention for the payment of their dues by the company, which retrenched them four months ago as part of an austerity program.
The company promised that the employees would be paid their full dues while settling their accounts but it did not fulfill that promise. “We are badly in need of these financial dues after the company has ended our services,” Abu Rakan told Okaz/Saudi Gazette“We are now jobless and we cannot manage our affairs without money and we await the company’s end of service benefits to meet oThe complex terminated the service of 1,300 workers effective Sept. 3, 2016 and asked them to contact their company Saudi Oger to complete their end of service procedures.
Abu Ibrahim Al-Harbi spoke about his deteriorating financial condition after he lost the job at the complex. “My children are going to school without any money,” he explained.
Abu Abdullah has a similar story to tell. His car is still in the workshop for repair works following an accident and could not take it back due to lack of funds.
Ali Gharamullah Al-Ghamdi, director general of the Labor and Social Development Ministry’s office in Madinah told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that all files of the terminated employees have been transferred to the labor dispute committee at the ministry.
“We have appointed a lawyer to follow and defend the case on behalf of employees,” Al-Ghamdi said.
Asked about prospects of shifting those employees to the ministry’s Saned program, he said it would be done on the basis of employees’ request. “Some of them have already registered with Saned to receive monthly subsistence allowance,” he added.
Al-Ghamdi cooled down the affected employees and said the ministry has been closely following their case. “You need not worry about your dues,” he added.
Lawyer Abdul Aziz Bin Obaid Al-Suhaimi explained two scenarios. “Employers usually end work contracts with their employees in two ways: First, ending it in a friendly way after paying all the dues in accordance with the Labor Law and contract terms,” he said.
In the second case, an employee will be terminated from service suddenly because of a specific reason and will not be paid his dues,” he said.
Article 74 of the Labor Law has explained the first case in detail. An employee will be terminated from service after obtaining a written permission from the worker. If the contract is not renewed a worker can continue in the job until the end of the contract period.
Al-Suhaimi emphasized the right of Qur’an complex employees to receive all the dues in accordance with their work contract. The company’s employees have suffered a lot as they were not receiving their monthly salaries and allowances over the past several months.
