DAMMAM — Labor disputes in Saudi courts have dropped considerably following new regulations implemented by the Ministry of Labor, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday quoting a human rights official. A total of 1,583 labor cases were filed before Saudi courts in the past two years, the paper said. General courts in various regions of the Kingdom received in file 1,171 lawsuits from the beginning of 2014 until this month, while the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) received 412 cases. NSHR Chairman Mofleh Al-Qahtani told Makkah daily that most of the cases revolved around nonpayment of salaries to the workers either due to the deteriorating financial condition of the employer or the employer did not bother to honor his contractual commitments toward his employees. He, however, noted that the labor disputes have decreased following recent decisions issued by the Labor Ministry. He said under these decisions, the relationship between the employer and the employee are restricted to the terms of the contract. "We had submitted a recommendation to the ministry in this regard," he added. Al-Qahtani called for amending the labor law to make the employees pay the fees for the renewal of residency permits, instead of the employer. "This will protect the workers against the hegemony of the sponsors," he said. The NSHR chairman said some representatives will not allow expatriate workers to meet their sponsors especially if they are women and will not help them communicate with them. "Subsequently, the expatriates may face troubles when their residency permits expire and may be subject to deportation just because they are unable to communicate with their sponsors," he said. Al-Qahtani warned the employers against delaying the salaries of their expatriate workers, saying these people may be the sole bread winners of their families back home. Ahmed Al-Jabri, a lawyer with the Labor Ministry's office in Dammam, said the ministry's commission to settle labor disputes is the sole body in charge of settling such cases. "Taking these cases to courts or the human rights organizations is an indication of people's ignorance of the law. The courts will dismiss the cases and ask workers to approach the committee," he said.
