Some 20 employees of a private polyclinic here are still waiting for payment of their wages stalled for over eight years now despite getting a court nod in their favor. A court here has already directed the inheritors of the polyclinic to pay the salary in arrears to 20 employees after the death of the owner. The affected employees include physicians, radiology technicians, nurses and workers. The total arrears have reached SR1.3 million. Dr. Sha'ban Rajab, a doctor, said the employees are still waiting for the payment of their wages despite court's intervention. He said their demands are for payment of entitlements and salary in arrears by the inheritors. The actual demands have started with the issuance of a letter from the Undersecretary of the Emir's Office in Jizan Region in 2003 to the Civil Rights Administration in Jizan Police giving them the right to collect all the revenues of the polyclinic to pay the doctors and other employees. At that time the salaries were paid regularly under the supervision of the Labor Committee in the Emir's Office until all the papers for the case were referred to the President of Jizan Courts. The Presidency of the Courts then issued its approval for auctioning the polyclinic and for executing the verdicts issued by the Primary Labor Committee in Asir Region four years earlier forcing the polyclinic to pay the salaries, compensations and arrears and send the employees back to their respective countries. Dr. Sha'ban further said when the committee started the procedures for selling the polyclinic, an order was issued to stop selling it due to the existence of a pending legal dispute between the inheritors and partners. Hence, the Emir of the region issued directives in 2005 that the Civil Rights Administration should not follow up the polyclinic case and give the polyclinic owners a chance to settle the salary dispute. __
