There is a tendency on the part of some employers to believe that they own the people they employ and can just about do anything they want with them. This trait is evident in many countries, and often the victim is a hapless immigrant or guest worker from an economically challenged country.
Unfortunately, this nasty trait is also evident in some of the GCC countries including Saudi Arabia. I am often amazed that in the land which gave birth to Islam and where so much emphasis is placed on religious adherence right from childhood, that it can also give birth to some Saudis who seem to skirt their Islamic beliefs particularly when it comes to compensating their workers for their labour and dispensing with their dues.
Reports of such exploitation over the years could fill volumes in an encyclopedia, and despite being reported and publicised in much of the Saudi press, it is unfortunate that this malicious practice seems to show no sign of fading.
Sometimes it is best to isolate such cases and publicise them in the hope that the perpetrator of misdeeds is shamed into repentance. Some months ago, I came to know of a situation involving three Indian female nurses who were apparently stranded in this country for more than two years without their residency documents or any lawful means of employment. The nurses, all of whom hail from the state of Kerala in India were employed by a clinic in Riyadh for several years under the sponsorship of the Saudi owner. In 2009, the Saudi passed away and that’s when their ordeal began.
According to one of the nurses, following the owner’s death, the management of the clinic was assumed by his son who was far less inclined than his father to make the business a success. It was obvious to the clinic staff that the son indeed had no interest to continue in his father’s footsteps, and it wasn’t long before he transferred and sold the business to another Saudi. The new owner spent a few months trying to make a go of it, but in January of 2010 he closed it down, leaving his staff high and dry and totally in the dark about their future. What added to their misery was the fact that all their documents including their passports and residency cards were being held by the sponsor.
S.V., the nurse, stated, “We have been unemployed for more than two years, and are unable return to our homes because we do not have the papers. The clinic which we worked in suddenly closed down in January two years ago without giving us any prior notice or options for job change. Since then we are stranded here and can’t work nor return home.”A labour court in May last year issued a judgement in favour of the three nurses and ordered the most recent sponsor to pay them their back wages and return all their documents with immediate effect. He quickly filed an appeal in the High Court and as S.V. says, “Our case was rejected in January this year and now we are helpless. Whenever we approach the Indian embassy, they ask us to wait.”
Finding a solution
Their plight and pleas for help eventually made it to the ears of their state’s Chief Minister Oomen Chandy who has apparently used his political muscle to prod an NGO in Riyadh to fast forward an acceptable solution to their plight. The NGO had petitioned the Indian ambassador in Riyadh for the embassy’s intervention in breaking the deadlock and setting the groundwork for returning the three nurses home. With Norka, the NGO for non-resident Keralite Affairs actively pursuing their case, there has been some progress and ‘things are moving’.
Fortunately in the case of the three nurses, someone of authority stepped in and has taken a stand. But what about the many others in similar situations who have no chief minister to speak up for them? Or no embassy to pursue their case? We cannot remain in denial in the face of such human rights violations of our guest workers by some unscrupulous employers. These workers have left their countries with great hardship and sacrifices to come here and eke out an honest living. Sometimes there are families back home whose survival depends on the wages of the guest worker. And while most of them are being compensated fairly, there are many others who have been denied their dues and today live in fear, hunger and uncertainty far away from their homes.
Such employers must be made to understand that wages are an earned right, and not charity. It is not simply about money owed. The psychological blowback of denying the worker his dues has a much bigger impact on the mental state of the victims. In a well circulated Hadith Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) had stated, “Pay the worker his dues before his sweat has dried up.” How difficult is it to understand that, and just how many of us adhere to such religious decrees?
Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
