MADINAH — Work in King Fahd Qur'an Printing Complex in Madinah has stopped on Tuesday when about a 1,000 workers of the company operating the facility did not show up protesting the delay in the payment of their monthly salaries. According to Al-Madinah newspaper on Wednesday, about 500 workers in the final supervision section and a similar number of workers in other sections have stopped work over the salary delay, which entered its third week now. Accordingly, the daily said, printing of the holy book in various languages has stopped for the time being. The employees claimed that there were payment delays during the past four months and said the company's management did not bother to respond to their inquires on the issue. They asked the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance to constitute a committee to make sure that they receive their monthly payments on time. The employees said a permanent solution to the matter of the continuous payment delays must be found. They said this was not the first time they had to stop work as they had done it more than once previously protesting their low pay. The employees said they filed a lawsuit against the company in the Administrative Court in Madinah and subsequently their salaries were increased. On the other hand the branch of the Labor Ministry in Makkah Province has halted all the ministry's services from a private establishment in Jeddah for delaying payment of salaries to its 600 workers by more than six months. Majdi Bamkoura, director of the ministry's inspection department, said the services that were halted included recruitment, issuance, renewal and transfer of iqamas, change of profession, among others. He did not name the establishment but said it has also committed another violation by not executing the ministry's wage protection program. Bamkoura said the ministry has obliged the establishment to sign a pledge to pay its employees all their outstanding salaries and to implement the wage protection program. He said the owner was summoned to the ministry where he was asked to solve the problem and to prevent its recurrence in the future. On their part, the employees claimed that the establishment delayed the payment of their wages for many months in the past. They said the payment delay started by two months then went up to three before reaching six months now. The workers said the owner was emboldened because they did not protest his decision to delay their wages at the first time. They added that he was deliberately delaying payments though had enough liquidity. An employee, who did not want to be identified, said about 130 employees have resigned and asked to be issued with final exit visas. He said the iqamas of about 400 have expired but the establishment did not make any move to renew them.
