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| Arabia |
| Young Saudis accuse employers of harassment |
| 2004-03-15 |
| Young Saudis in the private and public sectors say their employers and managers harass them in an attempt to force them out of their jobs, according to Al Madinah newspaper. They allege this is a plot to prove that Saudis are bad workers and Saudiisation is a failure. Tactics can include moving them from workplace to another, changing job descriptions, changing office hours, sending warning letters and verbally humiliating them, they say. Maher Mohammed worked in the private sector for two years before he says he was pushed out. "I was unemployed until I was taken on as a trainee by a private company under the Saudisation campaign," he said. "I worked very hard for one year trying to prove myself although I was not officially employed," said Maher. "After a year, my employer began harassing me. Then he began switching me from one store to another. I was patient and continued working as I had. I even cleaned and prepared tea for employees," he said. He said that he later learned that the owner was trying to drive out Saudis. "Out of four, three have left," he added. Mohammed Ali told a similar story. "I worked with a Saudi owner who had stores here and outside the city," he said. "The foreign managers began hassling me whenever my boss was out. The store manager tried to force me out so his relative could take my position." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 This is the exact same whining heard from my fellow employee's self-centered, spoiled, teen-aged brats whenever someone tries to get them to get off their asses and actually do something for themselves. (My favorite soap opera: Coworkers in Cubes. 8 hours a day. Channels left, right, and across.) |
| Posted by: sc88 2004-3-15 10:38:57 PM |
| #3 "I worked very hard for one year trying to prove myself although I was not officially employed," said Maher. "After a year, my employer began harassing me. Then he began switching me from one store to another. I was patient and continued working as I had. I even cleaned and prepared tea for employees," he said. Maybe the 10% that is true was that he was just crap at everything he unofficially did. Being crap at making tea and cleaning was probably the last straw, for everyone. You get sacked, you get sad, you move on.(Speaking from unofficial experience). Lol. |
| Posted by: Rhodesiafever 2004-3-15 2:35:33 PM |
| #2 This is hysterical - in the classic sense, I think. I only have the gigantic Saudi Social Employment Agency, aka Aramco, as a first-hand reference, but I seriously doubt this comes anywhere near the truth. It most certainly is NOT true of Aramco - of that I am certain. My JVC (Joint Venture Company) employer in Saudi had to "hire" multiple Saudis (6 in the office - 3 were Saudis) to satisfy Aramco reqs for being allowed to do business with them. I only ever saw ONE. The one Saudi employed there who actually ever showed up did, indeed, work for a living as translator and company rep when we had to do various things at Aramco - get ID cards, etc. For some functions, Aramco req'd an Arabic speaker. The others never even showed up. Like made-guy Vinnie's nephew being "hired" by the construction firm, they were on the payroll and an invisible anchor around my employer's neck. To assert that private companies who've been forced to accept Saudization (else they're not allowed to do business with any Gov't entity - and that's where the money is, of course) have started applying reverse discrimination is, to put it mildly, novel. One complaint by a Saudi to the Labor Ministry would most probably result in the company's owner being de-certified from doing business - a very expensive thing since companies are required to "capitalize" a large amount of money (a portion is actually a deposit) and this is subject to confiscation (e.g. a "fine" fund) for various Labor or other legal infractions by any of its employees or directors. Now consider that the owner of the company is ALSO a Saudi - all Co's must be at least 51% Saudi-owned - well now, what does that tell you? When even a Saudi owner wants you gone, you must not be worth warm spit... certainly not worth the salary paid. Probability of substantial truth - as implied by the lamentation of how hard one guy said he worked - is about 10%, IMHO. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-3-15 11:48:52 AM |
| #1 In Saudi Arabia the privileged class claims harassment and discrimination. Do the toilets flush backwards there too? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-3-15 11:24:39 AM |