Saeed Al-Suraihi

Okaz

 

RECENTLY, Al-Watan daily published a report on the misery of a group of Saudi men working as receptionists at furnished apartment complexes.



The report also talked about the salesmen at jewelry shops in Hafr Al-Batin Governorate. In fact, there are many Saudi men working in various fields who have been deprived of their weekly days off and paid annual vacations because employers do not see anything wrong with making Saudi employees work seven days a week. If a Saudi employee dares ask for an annual vacation, he will be allowed to take it but unpaid.



The private sector tends to ignore or overlook the rights of Saudi employees the same way it has done regarding the rights of expatriate workers. The situation used to be worse for the latter because they were not given many of the rights official laws guarantee them. For example, expatriate workers were not given weekly days off or annual vacations.



Those poor workers had to withstand these tough conditions and were reluctant to demand their rights for fear that their employers might terminate their contracts and get them deported from the country. They had to endure this situation because they did not want to be sent back home having paid a large amount of money in order to come here and find work in the Kingdom.



The authorities in charge of monitoring the private sector were not serious at the time about putting an end to the negative practices of some employers. The situation continued even after expatriate workers were replaced by Saudi workers. After all, most employers care about one and one thing only — how to make maximum profits at the expense of their workers regardless of their nationality.



In fact, even Saudi individuals who have a housemaid or driver tend to deprive them of their rights and they do not allow them to take a day off every week or do not pay them a salary when they go on annual vacation. Our own sons and daughters are tasting the medicine private sector companies used to give to expatriate workers. Concerned authorities have not done anything about this, then and now.