200 OFWs boycott work at Saudi Firm
Since Saturday, more than 200 OFWs in Saudi Arabia have stopped working, in protest of the suspected unfair labor practices of their employers. The group of engineers, supervisors and construction workers working for Al Arab Contracting Company Ltd., have decide to stop working when their company paid no heed to their complaints.
On February 2, they gave a letter to the company addressing the alleged violations of the Saudi Labor Law, for instance, withholding of the 2-month salary, non-payment of overtime pay, unable to comply with the Kingdom’s standard salary rates and unsafe working environment and discrimination. As for the Saudi Labor Law, it also mandates that overtime pay per hour be 150 percent of the basic hourly rate, but workers said, they only receive the basic rate.
For such positions as mechanical engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer and architect, the company have one of the lowest rates in the Kingdom. The workers seeked assistance of Migrante-affiliated labor group Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan and they reached their desicion to stop working as their "last resort".
Al Arab Contracting Company Ltd. is listed as one of the top 225 international contractors in the world in 2009 by the Engineering News Record. The nature of the company is more on construction and development services.
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