Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — A Saudi woman who applied for a job while her papers were being processed by the General Organization of Social Insurance (GOSI) was surprised to learn that she was already on the payroll of a reputed private company. In order to prove that she was not an employee for this company, the woman, identified as Ameena, had to deal with a substantial amount of paperwork and bureaucracy. Later on she found out why she had been scrapped from the Hafiz unemployment assistance program. Ameena told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that she was shocked to learn that she was an employee with the company working as a refrigeration machine operator. Her monthly salary was SR5,000 and she had been working there for more than 22 months. Ameena's husband said he visited the company's main office in Riyadh and confronted the human resources manager, who denied all knowledge of the incident. When the husband produced official documents from the GOSI and Ministry of Labor proving his claims, the manager told him to give him a few days to investigate. Rayan Bukhari, company spokesman, later claimed that there had been an administrative error and the company had an employee with a similar GOSI registration number as Ameena's. He said the company was ready to resolve the issue with Ameena and correct its mistake. Abdullah Muhammad Abdul Jabar, GOSI spokesman, said when the organization receives a complaint similar to Ameena's it opens an investigation into the alleged violation. If investigations prove the employer is guilty, GOSI corrects the affected employee's records and fines the company SR5,000 for each violation. Hattab Al-Enezi, Ministry of Labor spokesman, advised Ameena to lodge a complaint against the company with the ministry, indicating she would be compensated accordingly.
