JEDDAH — A labor dispute over unpaid wages involving around 400 laborers and engineers working on the Haramain train project in Jeddah was resolved on Tuesday, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported. The employees claimed they had not been paid for three months. Employees of the Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) were present during negotiations to resolve the crisis. Supervisors of the project promised to pay salary arrears to all workers within three days. Commenting on the incidents, a spokesperson for SRO said steps were being taken to ensure similar incidents would not happen again. “We confirm that this situation is totally unacceptable and the regulations of the country forbid this,” he said. According to eyewitnesses, workers at the project site smashed up offices and cars. The supervisors on the project only threatened to call police to force workers to return to work, said the witnesses. The majority of the workers are violators of residency and labor regulations, said a source in the project. Their iqamas expired up to a year ago, said the source, adding that this was also the case for some employees working on the new airport project and the Conferences Palace in Jeddah. One of the affected engineers, who requested anonymity, claimed those in charge of the project remit the amounts they receive from the Ministry of Transport abroad without giving the engineers and workers their due salaries. He said the promise to pay the salary arrears within three days was similar to previous pledges offered by the company officials over the past five years. However, this time the company officials told the workers if the promise was not kept, they should not come to the site until their outstanding wages were paid, said the engineer. He mentioned that car companies from which a number of employees and engineers bought vehicles on lease have impounded their cars for nonpayment of installments for more than three months. The engineer requested urgent cash and food assistance for the workers, claiming they were suffering a lot. They could not leave the work site in the evening because they were not holding valid iqamas. Jeddah Police spokesman First Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq said there was no official report on the occurrence of a strike or vandalism at the project site. He said: “This appears to be an internal matter in the project regarding salaries that has been solved amicably.”
