The illegal practice of some local establishments, including recruiting agencies, in hiring Bangladeshi laborers and then setting them free to look for jobs on their own is not a bad deal, according to most of these workers. “We get a better income working outside the establishments that hired us and brought us to the Kingdom,” said 27-year-old Shamsul Noor, who has been earning a living by washing and cleaning cars for the last three years. The official monthly rate of payment to a Bangladeshi laborer, as approved by Bangladesh's Ministry of Labor, is SR550. Noor and other independent laborers like him, however, get more than this official rate, a reason why many of them have agreed to work on their own. Noor said he and other Bangladeshi laborers were told by their sponsor to look for jobs after their arrival in the Kingdom. In return, they each have to pay their sponsor SR200 to SR300 every month. “This is a good arrangement because I control my own time,” he said. Noor is one of the many Bangladeshis who cover specific areas in Dammam cleaning the cars of office workers and companies. “I service about 20 cars, and I charge no less than SR50 a month for each. Sometimes I get extra money from the car owners. I wash their cars at least four times a week, thus giving me time to attend to other odd jobs,” he said. If able to make a deal with companies with pools of cars, a Bangladeshi car washer can easily earn over a thousand riyals a month. Bangladeshi car washers, like Noor, who earns more than a thousand riyals a month, admit that they do odd jobs as a permanent source of income. A labor official at the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh, however, said that Bangladeshi laborers who do odd jobs like washing vehicles have permanent jobs in local companies and establishments. “Car cleaners and washers are doing these jobs to augment their income; they have permanent company jobs. To supplement their income they wash cars after their office hours,” said Labor Attaché Kasi Abdulkalam. “There are no longer any Bangladeshis arriving in the Kingdom to work independently as laborers or freelancers since the Saudi Ministry of Labor stopped the issuance of labor visas, except for those who are contracted to work in established companies,” Abdulkalam said. He said all workers who arrive here to work as laborers are contracted by local companies, adding that the ban on Bangladeshi laborers without official contracted jobs is now strictly enforced by the Bangladesh government. Bangladeshi workers here in Dammam who clean cars, however, disputed Abdulkalam's belief that there are no Bangladeshis working on their own. “Many of us here are working on our own, not with companies, though still under the sponsorship of individual citizens, Noor said. Noor said that, like many of the Bangladeshi laborers washing cars and doing other odd jobs, such as scavenging for discarded cartons, tin cans and other materials, he prefers working independently because he makes more money than being employed in a company. “Working in a company with a SR550 salary is not enough. Working outside provides us with a better income and more opportunities to engage in our work. The only obligation is the monthly payoff to our sponsor,” he told Saudi Gazette. Noor said there are many independent workers who are lucky enough to find jobs with better salaries, much higher than the SR550 demanded by their government. “Meanwhile, washing cars, which gives me a good income, is an option I have to take until better opportunities come along,” he said.
