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Binladin Group tells 17,000 Saudi staff to quit or wait

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Binladin Group tells 17,000 Saudi staff to quit or wait

The number of foreign workers sacked by the group has risen to 77,000.

Published: Tue 3 May 2016, 2:44 PM

Updated: Tue 17 May 2016, 5:43 PM

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  • Curated by Yousuf Saifuddin Kapadia

The Saudi Binladin Group has asked its Saudi staff, who have not been paid salaries, to either resign or wait for the settlement of their dues.
According to a report by Saudi Gazette, the Makkah-based construction giant, has asked its Saudi employees in particular, who have not been paid for almost four months, to either wait or quit.
The number of foreign workers sacked by the group has risen to 77,000.
Saudi employees are opting to wait as the company has promised to pay them an additional two-month salary on top of their delayed dues, said company sources.
There are about 217,000 employees working for the Saudi Binladin Group, including 200,000 foreign workers and 17,000 Saudis - working as engineers, administrators and inspectors. Together, they are paid monthly salaries of approximately SR414 million.
According to the sources, the company's dues have reached more than SR4.8 billion which should be paid during 2017 in addition to SR595 million payable in 2018, Saudi Gazette reported.
Director of the Labor Ministry's branch in Makkah Abdullah Al-Olayan said the ministry will ensure all the expatriate workers receive their salaries before they leave the country.
The security agencies are also investigating the incident where angry workers torched seven buses of the company on Saturday.

The Group has said that dismissed workers received "full compensation," and described the job cuts as a routine measure amid a slowdown in the construction industry.
"Most of the released jobs had initially been recruited for contracted projects with specific time frame and deliverables."
The company added it will honor its commitments "in case further manpower is released."
Sources in March told AFP that delayed receipts from the government, whose oil revenues collapsed over the past two years, have left employees of the kingdom's construction giants struggling to survive while they await their salaries.
On Friday, Al-Watan reported that 50,000 of the group's staff were refusing to leave the country while their salaries remained unpaid after more than four months.



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