Seventy-six Saudi and expatriate employees of a construction company has approached the executive court in Makkah seeking the payment of their delayed salaries, which amount to SR5 million. The employees, according to Makkah daily on Wednesday, urged the court to expedite the settlement of their case, which was making rounds in various courts of Makkah over the last 30 months. The employees said a real estate unit in Al-Aziziyah district of Makkah belonging to the company's owner was to be sold in a public auction about two weeks ago to pay their outstanding salaries but the auction was stopped. The court sources said the auction was not held because it turned out that real estate unit was not fully owned by the company's owner, who had some partners in the property. The sources said the company's owner owns a piece of land in another area of Makkah but the proceeds from which would be enough to pay the employees. The court decided that the land will be sold in a public auction on April 10 and said its expected value would be enough to pay the employees' dues. The sources said the court had closed down the company and frozen its bank accounts pending the settlement of the employees' case. Talal Al-Harbe, a Saudi employee, said some of the employees did not receive their salaries for a whole year while the delay for many others was 4 to 9 months. "This has adversely affected our lives because we do not have any money to support our families," he said. He said their predicament with the company started about three years ago and they had finally to resort to the law to get paid. Harbe asked the concerned parties to take all necessary measures to resolve their case before their debts would aggravate further. The sources said the court was not able to rule in the case quickly because no final verdicts had been issued on several complaints lodged against the defendant in various courts of Makkah. They said the majority of the verdicts issued by the courts on the employees' complaints were preliminary and the executive court could not give its verdict until the cases in other courts were settled.
