By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
Close on the heels of reports on “inordinate delay” in payments for works executed in construction projects across the country, employees of some firms are now coming up with complaints of non-payment of salaries by their employers.
While some of these employees are venting their anger through letters to the editors of local newspapers, some others are exploring other options to claim their salaries.
Recently, aggrieved workers of a contracting firm - which undertakes communications projects - complained about the non-payment of salaries for 4-8 months by their employer.
Sources told Gulf Times that more than 200 employees of the company have not received their salaries for several months. They include staff members who have their families in the country as well, it was pointed out.
Every month, it is learnt, the company’s operator attributes the non-payment of salaries to factors such as “receivables” from clients. Employees claim that the manager has been doing this for several months but none of them has reported it to the local authorities concerned as this may lead to the cancellation of their visas.
Sources further allege that while the company operator has not paid his workers for months, he has reportedly made several remittances to his home country during this period through money exchanges.
“While some of us have pinned our hopes on the new initiatives of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), we don’t know how long we should wait for the new guidelines to be put in place,” said an employee who has reportedly not received his salary for several months.
Earlier this month, MoI officials went on record on the issue of considering a change of sponsorship for workers in case of repeated or continuous delay of salary payment at their workplace.
Complaints of non-payment or delayed payment of salaries have come in from other sections of workers as well. Workers of some companies, mainly those in the construction sector, have sought the intervention of the labour department in recent weeks over similar issues, it is understood.
Along with the non-payment of salaries, issues such as non-stamping of visas for scores of workers – mostly at the lower levels of companies - have also come to light in recent weeks. Some of them have been in the country for periods exceeding a year, it is learnt.
“While scores of workers without residence permit have been apprehended by the authorities in recent weeks, it is doubtful if the managers of companies defaulting repeatedly on the salaries of their workers have been given similar treatment,” said an employee of a construction firm, where workers have allegedly not been paid for the past few months.
Enquiries at some of the Asian embassies found that most of the complaints lodged there by expatriates pertained to the non-payment of salaries. One of them feared that such complaints were bound to rise in the coming months in view of the increased arrival of workers for different projects.
Sources point out that though deliberations have been going on at different levels over the possibility of introducing salary payments through banks for the last few years, nothing concrete has taken place yet, giving “unscrupulous” operators further opportunities to manipulate situations.
