A happy employee is an asset that a company should cherish. But, generally, most companies offer their employees little incentives, while offering some basic rights uniformly and infringing on many other rights. One thing I know for a fact is that most employees are ignorant about their rights, and many are content with what is offered. While this ignorance prevails, many companies take advantage of this ignorance to abuse their employees. For many companies, an employee who knows his/her rights is a dangerous one and should be dealt with or even sacked immediately. Simultaneously, an employee who is ignorant about his/her rights is an attractive one. Any employee who challenges the company about his/her right is either destined to be sacked or transferred to the archive department in an attempt to force him/her to resign. And the record that he/she is a troublemaker follows him/her, making him/her unattractive for future employment. Ironically, it is a law ordered by the Ministry of Labor to hand over a booklet about employees' rights and duties to the employee after he/she signs a contract, but like many other laws, it exists only in paper and not enforced. What is sad, however, is that the vast majority of employees themselves do not know that they are supposed to get their booklets simply because they are not told about it. I would like to know how many companies voluntarily grant their employees their rights before they ask for it? Would I be exaggerating if I said there is no such company? There are companies that intentionally hide employees' rights from them and want them to remain ignorant. A friend of mine who worked as head of human resources of a big company in Riyadh is an example of such practice. He told me that part of his job was to keep the company employees aware of their rights and he started to guide them properly when they had a complaint against the company or when they wanted to inquire about their rights. Employees were happy and they started to come to him for consultation and most of them followed up in seeking their rights. He told me that many of them did not know anything about their rights as employees. Then word got out to the top manager and called him to his office. The manager was angry that the human resources head was helping the employees and guiding them properly with their rights. My friend was shocked at the manager and did not believe what he was hearing. He told him that these are their rights as employees and what he was doing was not only what was best for the employees but what was best for the company. The manager then shocked him further with a request when he told him "Do not rock the boat". The manager told him that his help for the employees would only lead to a mutiny on the ship. How many companies out there have the same opinion? Then two weeks later my friend resigned because he did not want to work in a company with no ethics toward its employees. There are employees who know some of their rights but they are afraid to ask for it because if they do, they think they would be risking their jobs, especially if they are expatriate workers who are often exploited. An employee who did not want his name mentioned told me that he works as a delivery man for a private company. As an employee doing this particular job, he was entitled to extra transportation allowance because it involves him using his car and going to different locations. He said that he knew that there was such an allowance set aside for people in this particular job but he was afraid to ask about it, fearing that it might mark him as a troublemaker or even get him fired. He said that the company is in business of saving money, even at the expense of its own employees. Another man once told me that when he joined a new company, he worked when he was sick because he was in the three-month probation period and was afraid that if he reported sick or brought a sick leave note then the company might think he was searching for excuses to be absent. They have to be extra careful during this period even if it meant giving up some of their rights. Why is that? The same thing goes for women employees who have just given birth. In the government sector she is granted two months vacation after giving birth. But I have heard in some private companies, the vacation is way shorter than that. The Labor Ministry is doing a great job in protecting workers rights in the private sector. What is needed is to inculcate it in the minds of workers by organizing more seminars, especially in the language that the expatriate workers understand. We need to educate workers, Saudi and non-Saudi, on ways to deal with violation from companies when it comes to their rights. This booklet should be available in all languages and in all consulates. I hope that the Labor Ministry will also take the initiative to publish the main points of employees' rights at the entrance of all companies in Arabic and English in order to make it clear for all to know their respective rights. Companies should not treat employees as slaves. Employees should know that they are not asking for a gift, it is their right.
— The writer can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter:@anajeddawi_eng
