Three Indian expatriates out of a group of 300 workers who filed a labor dispute case against their employer received a court verdict in their favor, but before the verdict was issued, they were detained by the police for not having a valid Iqama (residence permit). In a police raid on illegal residents, Mateen Shaikh (air-conditioner technician), Muhammad Imtiaz Alam and Shujaat Hussain (water treatment plant operators) were arrested on Feb. 26 and since then have been detained at Shumaisy Deportation Center in Riyadh. The Labor Court announced the verdict on March 10 in favor of the employees who filed a case against their company for failing to pay monthly salaries, end-of-service-benefits and refusal to allow them to go on vacation. Speaking from the Deportation Center, Mateen Shaikh said the police arrested the trio while they were eating their breakfast at a restaurant. Shaikh said the company never issued them an Iqama besides failing to pay their monthly salary. A group of employees filed a case against the company, and the lower court in November last year passed a verdict in their favor. However, the company did not honor the court verdict and filed an appeal with the higher court and the case dragged on for five more months until finally the court upheld the lower court verdict in favor of the expatriate workers. The company has now started to hand over the delayed salaries to the employees and is also allowing them to go on exit-only visas, Shaikh said, adding that the workers have also started to receive their end-of-service-benefits before going on final exit. “It is more than one month since we were arrested and our plea to the sponsor to get us released from the deportation center is falling on deaf ears,” said Shaikh. He said the three have also tried to convince the deportation center by producing the court verdict, but the authorities showed little or no interest in what the court had decided. The authorities informed the foreign embassies concerned about the expatriate workers who had been detained without valid residence permits. The embassies issue travel documents for their nationals after certain procedures. Shaikh said he fears losing his end-of-service benefit that amounts to around SR10,000 if the authorities at the deportation center send the workers back to India. “We are afraid of losing our money. The jail authorities have already obtained travel documents from the Indian Embassy. The illegal workers are sometimes deported even if they do not have air tickets and this is where we are concerned that we will lose our hard-earned money,” he said. However, he said the trio managed to establish contact with the Indian Embassy which assured them of assistance. “We (the trio) have requested the Indian Embassy's intervention,” Shaikh said. An embassy official asked them to wait for a week or 10 days assuring them that they would receive their money from the company and air tickets. “We just want to receive our end-of-service benefits before we are sent back home,” Shaikh said, adding that the court verdict in their favor came as a great relief after they had undergone the tribulations of legal proceedings and waiting for several months.
