DAMMAM — According to newly-released government statistics, a majority of the Kingdom's 375,795 registered disabled Saudis are neglected and often exploited. Citing lack of coordination between the ministries of labor and social affairs, the report criticizes both the public and private sectors for failing to help the disabled, Al-Sharq newspaper reported. Due to lack of a governing body for the disabled, no classification of the exact nature of their disabilities exists. Neither are there any records on personal skills and abilities. Also, with no laws that protect them from exploitation at the work place, the disabled are often deprived of promotions and other benefits regardless of their educational qualifications or job performance. In order to encourage the private sector to employ the disabled, the government awards companies by considering each disabled employee as equal to four healthy employees, something which helps companies meet Saudization quotas. However, once the quota is met, disabled employees are either neglected or forced to resign. “Companies employ the disabled just to achieve their Saudization target. Once a company achieves its Saudization target and is allowed to recruit more workers, the disabled are harassed into resigning. “They also fail to take special circumstances into consideration, so if someone needs to visit the hospital on a regular basis, for example, they will start deducting his already low salary for being absent,” said Hussain Meghais, a Saudi who suffers from a disability that hinders his movement. “There are other issues too like requiring the disabled to work eight hours every day, something which everyone cannot handle, lack of parking spaces for the disabled in mostly commercial establishments and perhaps most importantly, they are always employed in small, entry level positions with no potential for promotion or job growth,” he added. On a recent trip to China, Meghais said his medication was confiscated as he lacked government-issued documentation confirming his disabilities. Without separate IDs, Meghais said the Kingdom's disabled experience disadvantages in various aspects of their lives. Yousef and Musallam are brothers who suffer from a disorder that has left them almost blind. Both work as switchboard operators with the contracting company of Qatif Central Hospital. They each get SR2,500 a month and although they have been employed for five years, they have never received a raise. Similarly, Ameen Al-Rashdan, a private security guard at a government hospital in the Eastern Province for the past 15 years, said his salary of SR900 was only recently increased to SR2,270 a month. Al-Rashdan said his low salary caused his wife to divorce him. When asked to comment, Hattab Al-Enezi, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Labor, said the disabled should be employed according to their abilities and companies that employ the disabled for Saudization purposes are in violation of the law. Al-Enezi confirmed, however, that are no existing labor laws concerning the disabled. Ahmad Al-Saif, a lawyer and head of the disability unit at the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), said the government has a few programs to improve the working conditions of the disabled. However, the programs still need to be reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Labor. “Many countries have dropped the requirement that an employee mast be medically fit and job qualifications are the only factor that is considered. “Companies in such countries are also required to provide suitable working conditions for the disabled. For example, disabled employees in these countries can sue their company if it fails to provide wheelchair ramps,” he said while urging the government to closely monitor companies who exploit the disabled. Khalid Al-Hajri, an activist for the rights of the disabled and member of the NSHR, said the Kingdom's labor law only contains one paragraph concerning the disabled. “It states that disabled employees are to be counted as four healthy employees with regard to fulfilling nationalization requirements. The Kingdom is behind other Gulf countries in issuing regulations for the disabled,” he said. “There aren't any designated parking places, ramps for wheel chairs, open areas for free movement of wheel chairs, special signs for the deaf or blind or even toilet seats to cater to their needs,” he added.
