Okaz newspaper The issue of runaway employees should be dealt with in a more flexible manner that is fair to all the parties concerned. Contrary to the popular claim that one must protect the rights of the runaway worker, it is clear that the sponsor's rights are the ones that are lost. Actually, I cannot understand how a runaway driver can have rights owed to him by a citizen who paid large amounts to recruit him, to get his residence permit (Iqama) and driver's license issued and who pays him a wage regularly every month. It is understandable that an offer of a better salary will entice a worker to run away from his employer but when this happens, the person who he ends up working for illegally benefits as he has not borne any of the costs associated with the recruitment process. In the case of a driver, when a sponsor reports that he has run away, the grace period often passes and he is left without a driver and becomes the losing party. To make matters worse, when the driver longs for his family and decides to return to his home country, he surrenders so as to travel home at the expense of the sponsor! There is no doubt that the actions of some sponsors, such as non-payment of wages, often drive workers to run away. However, drivers, specifically, are a rare currency in great demand in the Kingdom and nobody can recruit a driver and deprive him of his rights. It is necessary to differentiate between a visa trader, who recruits workers for a small or bogus establishment but neglects and deprives them of their rights and the head of a family who recruits a driver that he needs badly for his family. If he deprives him of even a single day's wage, a driver can refuse to work and thus disrupt a family's schedule. I have heard many complaints from citizens who have reported that their drivers have left them. Years go by and then suddenly the driver appears at his sponsor's residence demanding to be issued airfare and an exit-only visa. Such blatant violation of the law only occurs because workers are well aware of the fact that the only thing that will happen when they are arrested after they have been reported is the summoning of the sponsor to pay for the worker's airfare and complete his travel procedures. This in itself is an injustice for the citizen and has nothing to do with human rights. Once, a doctor told me that his runaway driver showed up at the hospital where he worked and demanded that he provide him with airfare and proceeded to threaten him. “I called the security guards at the hospital and told them to detain him so that I can take my rights and deport him at the expense of the person who employed him illegally for years. However, I had to let him go when the driver started laughing and threatened that if I didn't give him airfare, he would go to the authorities and claim that I hadn't paid his salary. ‘Then you'll have to pay me even more,' were his words.” We must give this matter more attention with justice and firmness plus come up with a fair deterrent punishment for those who run away from their sponsors. __
