Saudi Labor Office cancels work contracts for violations

Saudi Labor Office cancels work contracts for violations

The Labor Office in Jeddah has canceled a number of work contracts issued by companies after detecting violations of the Kingdom's labor laws.

May 19, 2010 4:34 by Samuel Potter

The Labor Office in Jeddah has canceled a number of work contracts issued by companies after detecting violations of the Kingdom’s labor laws, according to Arab News.

Qusai Al-Filali, director of the Jeddah Labor Office, urged private companies and establishments to fully abide by the Kingdom’s labor laws when signing contracts with workers, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.

“We will take punitive measures against firms found guilty of violating labor laws,” he said.

Al-Filali said some of the contracts included unfair conditions that deny employees their rights.

“The Labor Office’s action comes after many Saudi employees filed complaints. Inspections were carried out by Labor Office officials that were instrumental in verifying the violations,” he said.

“We have given them the choice to amend the contracts or cancel them altogether… the Labor Office would not normally interfere in contracts between two parties unless we find them to be contrary to labor law regulation,” he said.

In another development, more than 12 Saudi employees have approached the Labor Office after they were sacked without notice. The employees, who work for a company that implements government projects, say the company has violated the labor law by including unfair conditions in their contracts.

The employees also claim the company is biased in its treatment of Saudi employees.

Salah Ibrahim Al-Qurashi and Ahmad Abdan Al-Ghamdi, two of the employees, said Saudi employees were sacked after working on a government project that took three years to complete.

“It was stunning for us to see that only Saudi employees had been sacked while foreign employees were kept on. The foreigners were also drawing higher salaries than Saudis,” they said, adding that employees are also not given health insurance cover.

Al-Filali said that there is no excuse for companies not to give their staff mandatory health insurance coverage.

- Arab News