20/10/2020
Hundreds of Indian workers demand unpaid wages from Saudi firm
The Indian embassy in Riyadh said the workers' complaint had been
taken up with the company and Saudi o cials this month, and that it
was awaiting a response on the matter.
The Saudi human resources ministry could not be reached for
comment but last month said workers could log violations through its
online dispute settlement platform or go to a labour court.
The Nasser S Al Hajri Corporation - which describes itself on its
website as the largest industrial contractor in the Middle East - did not
respond to repeated requests for comment.
HELPLINE IN DEMAND
Hundreds of thousands of Indian migrant workers are estimated to
have returned home from Gulf nations
(https://news.trust.org/item/20200519093700-jyf6o ) this year
due to COVID-19 (https://news.trust.org/item/20200413065535edq5n), and activists, lawyers and unions said they were dealing with
fresh complaints about pay issues on a daily basis.
The number of wage theft cases
(https://news.trust.org/item/20200908231004-hlk8n/ ) reported
from Gulf countries rose more than three-fold between April and July
compared with the same period last year, says the Business and
Human Rights Resource Centre, which advocates for human rights in
business.
"We started a helpline for Gulf migrants in the middle of the pandemic
and were ooded with calls of wage theft," said Rafeek Ravuther,
founder of The Centre for Indian Migrant Studies, a Kerala-based
charity that works for migrant rights.
https://news.trust.org/item/20201019120025-lfwpj/
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