19/10/2020
‘We’ve been suffering for a long time’: Migrant workers struggle as company delays payments for almost a year - Doha News
According to an ITCC employee who spoke to Doha News, by June, around 550 migrant
workers had not received their salaries since November the previous year.
The employee said that the police came to the protest and told them the company will be
paying within 15 days. A month then passed with no money in their bank accounts,
prompting some 20 workers to camp out in front of the company’s o
ce in protest.
Since then, some workers received half of their September salaries only and were not given
their previous missed payments, the source told Doha News.
One source also said that a group of workers resigned without fully receiving their nal
settlements. In protest, the former employees have been sleeping inside the company’s
o
ces and say they will not leave until they receive the money owed to them.
According to one of the company’s employees, ITCC made sta
sign a document that
claimed they had received all of their nal settlement money, but in reality they were only
paid 30%.
Amongst those who spoke to Doha News, one worker told us that 15 of his colleagues were
paid 30% of their pending salaries but were asked to sign a document on Monday that
falsely claimed they received 100% of their wages.
Trying to make ends meet
One worker told Doha News that he had been forced to take out loans just to survive, and
has since been struggling to pay back what he has borrowed because he has still not
received the money owed to him.
“We work hard in the company, we fully support the company, but nobody is helping us
now,” said a worker.
While investigating this story, Doha News has found out that the owner of ITCC was
arrested by police several months ago and has since been in custody for violating labour
laws and failing to pay his employees. The company itself is bankrupt, and the owner
according to one source, has been forced to sell some of his assets abroad in order to be able
to pay the outstanding wages.
As with most migrant workers, many have families back home that rely on them
nancially, meaning that spouses, parents and children have been left without any income
as a result of the company’s shortcomings.
“We have been su ering for a long time. Our families are living in hell,” one of the workers
told Doha News.
Between a family whose needs must be provided for, to empty payment promises from
ITCC management, to having to lie to their loved ones—the workers are feeling more and
more helpless.
Doha News reached out to ITCC for comment, but has received no response from the
company yet.
https://www.dohanews.co/weve-been-suffering-for-a-long-time-migrant-workers-struggle-as-company-delays-payments-for-almost-a-year/
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