Law & You - 2010 No. 2

We did not receive our salary for over two months, and our employer is promising to pay only one month of our salary soon. People who have worked here before have confirmed that this slow payment process has gone on for a long time. These people have already filed a complaint and it went nowhere. Our employer even holds our original iqamas; some of the workers have gone months without them. We are given photocopies of our iqamas to carry with us. Our situation has become precarious. We don’t even have money to get to our consulate. We continue to work for no money. We have no health insurance. One worker got sick and was lucky he had money to pay for medicine. We need help. What do we do? Can you inform the higher authorities what is happening? We should be sent home with compensation for this injustice. We didn’t leave our families and homelands to be treated in this manner. — D.D.T.

A. This is a tragic situation. If you can afford it, you get a lawyer. Write a letter to your employer and threaten to complain to the Labor Office if he doesn’t correct his mistakes. If he doesn’t comply, complain to the Labor Office. Do not resign. The Ministry of Labor says an employer can only go two months without paying his employees. After that the employees are free to seek work elsewhere in the Kingdom.

Q. I submitted my case to the Labor Court against my company for stopping me from working without giving me any notice and also not paying me two months of my salary. The Labor Court ruled in my favor, but my employer is not abiding by the decision. The Labor Court has given me the next hearing date. What should I do? – Anonymous

A. Your employer has 30 days to appeal the decision. Then you must go to Riyadh to fight the appeal. If your employer fails to appeal within 30 days then the judgment is final and you can seek enforcement of the ruling. Go to the Labor Office and ask an official there how to enforce the decision. Meanwhile, the court should grant you permission to seek employment elsewhere.

Q. We have a two-year work contract in Jeddah. We wish to end our contract after one year. Do we have to pay indemnities to our employer, or do we just forego the free ticket back home? Please clarify. – Anonymous

A. Your contract period is two years. If you resign sooner then you not only give up your ticket, but your employer can demand you compensate him for all of his costs pertaining to getting you to Saudi Arabia, including government visa fees and any costs to the company incurred by the inconvenience of your premature departure.

Q. I have been working for five years with an unspecified-period, open-ended contract. Now I want to return to my country. I understand that working for five years is a good reason to request termination of contract. Can I do that? – Anonymous

A. Your contract is not open-ended; it is based on the expiration date of your work permit. If you want to leave before that expiration date, you should negotiate this with your employer. By law you must declare your intention to resign at least 30 days before the date.

— Answers given by  Muhammad Jaber Nader

— Questions may be sent to Arab News by e-mail (arabnews@arabnews.com), fax (02)2836228, or regular mail (P.O. Box 10452, Jeddah 21433).