Ahmad Ajab Al-Zahrani
SOME companies delay the payment of salaries for seven months, which means that their employees have to find some way to manage without money for that period of time. Can you believe that? What is worse is that some people do not consider such delays to be a grave matter and believe it is a natural and unavoidable thing when companies face financial crises. They also believe that workers should not complain and protest such delays. It is not the end of the world if one’s salary is delayed for a month or two or even for a year. Nobody is going to die of hunger. Besides, they feel that workers should be grateful and should have patience because the company they work for has done a lot of things for them over the years.
Both Saudi and non-Saudi workers suffer when their salaries are not paid on time. If the monthly salary of a Saudi worker is delayed, he will suffer from the negative effects of such delays. The workers will have no money to buy clothes for their children, or pay the rent, utility bills, monthly installments for their car and repayments on bank loans. Such individuals might even end up in prison because of the delays.
If an expatriate worker is not paid his salary on time, he will suffer from negative consequences as well. First of all, the company he works for will be suspended by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development if it delays paying his monthly salary. If services have been suspended for the company, then the worker will be unable to renew his resident permit and as a result his bank account may be frozen. He will be unable to get an exit-re-entry visa although he will be able to get his sponsorship transferred after three months. Still, this is a long period for an expatriate worker who came here searching for a better standard of living.
The problem is that the owner of the business or the company director will not be greatly affected by such delays. He can still lead a normal life and travel abroad. There are no deterring penalties for companies that delay paying the monthly salaries of workers. Moreover, workers who do not get paid for months cannot bring a lawsuit against their employers and claim compensation for damage as a result of not being paid. I think business owners are taking advantage of this loophole and tend to delay salaries because they know they will not be legally penalized.
