JEDDAH — Financial liabilities of Saudi Oger Ltd., a Riyadh-based construction company, have crossed $800 million (approx. SR3 billion), according to a number of French and international newspapers. The dues the company has to pay are in the form of unpaid salaries and end of service benefits to its workers, financial dues of subcontractors and banks' debts. The newspapers said a number of French employees have assigned a female lawyer to defend their rights against the company in French courts. There were about 200 French employees working as engineers and administrators in the company's projects in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. According to informed sources, the ongoing negotiations between the lawyer of the employees and the company reached a deadlock as the employees were demanding the full payment of their dues. They said the company offered to pay its French employees five months' salaries and half of their compensations, but their lawyer rejected the offer. The sources said the French Embassy in Riyadh has been financially helping French employees to meet their expenses, including school fees. Saudi Oger was among nine companies blacklisted by by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) from hiring overseas Filipino workers. Some 31,000 complaints have been reportedly filed by workers against Saudi Oger at the Ministry of Labor and Social Development.
