At least 40 foreign cleaners and office boys at Jeddah General Court hit the picket lines Tuesday over non-payment of their measly SR350 monthly salaries for the last nine months. The court employees were seen cleaning their offices, making tea, and taking paperwork from one office to another as the workers have refused to return to work without full payment of their delayed salaries. Struggling with deplorable living conditions where 16 workers share a 16-sq. meter room provided by the cleaning company, they said they had to work somewhere else after office hours to barely get by. “Our agony was doubled when the company confiscated our Iqamas (residence permits), leaving us at risk of being rounded up and deported,” said Jafar, a Bangladeshi company worker. Last week, 11 cleaning workers of the same company were arrested for moving around the city without their proper ID cards, he said. They spent eight days in detention before the company representative came to their rescue with the Iqamas, he said. A source at Jeddah General Court said that the cleaning company had been contacted about the strike and promised to pay them within 24 hours. The company has held the pay fearing that the workers would run away after being paid, something which may happen now, the source added.
