Have you ever worked for a tyrant boss of Machiavellian proportions minus the benefits? If so, you aren't alone and court may be a feasible option. A court here is going to look into a case filed by a group of young Saudi workers against their British boss at an oil exploration company sub-contracted by Aramco for allegedly bullying them and staining their reputation at the workplace. Fighting back on a different front, the group has also filed a case with the Labor Office in the Eastern Province against the same boss for allegedly denying them their legal and contracted benefits for eight years. In both filed cases, the young workers said despite the fact that they have been working round- the-clock in the oil fields risking their lives with a lethal combination of highly-radiated materials and explosives in their oil exploration job, they were rewarded by rude management behavior. Despite the risks involved in the job, their contracted benefits have not been paid, the complaint stated. The workers claimed that no actual overtime hours were paid. In addition, the company didn't provide them with health insurance as stated by the labor law, they claimed. The workers requested full and complete investigation into the case. Threatened to be fired and already restricted from entering the company, Ali Abdulaziz Turki, a company employee, said that they were mistreated by their foreign colleagues after they had known about their pending case against the company. “We are only 30 Saudis in the company, some with eight years in service, but we have become a target for the slightest mistake,” he said. The Saudi workers have always been given the dirty work under the sizzling summer sun in the middle of nowhere in the Empty Quarter, he said. Turki was referred by his British boss to a hospital for an alcohol test. “Can you believe that? I don't even smoke?” he said. Although he was tested negative, in more than one occasion, his “abusive boss” accused him of drinking in front of his colleagues, he said. “When I complained to the general manager of the company, the lobbyists got together to restrict from entering the company,” he added. “I think bullying is not only on playgrounds. I already met the bully boss minus the benefits,” he said. A source at the Labor Office said that a preliminary committee has been formed to look into this labor dispute and involved parties would be summoned for investigation. – Okaz __
