20 ‘wronged’ Filipino drivers stop work in protest

RIYADH: Twenty Filipinos out of a group of about 150 trailer truck drivers in Dammam have stopped work due to violations of the terms and conditions of their employment contracts by their employer.

“The Filipino workers stopped working on May 26 after their employer continuously turned a deaf ear to their complaints, which include contract substitution, lack of insurance coverage and vacation leave salary and illegal deductions,” Kenneth David, Migrante-Eastern Region chapter case officer, told Arab News on Tuesday.

Contract substitution is when Filipino workers sign contracts back home in order to gain clearance from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

Upon arrival, however, those contracts are replaced with new ones that reduce the salaries. The phenomenon affects Filipino workers in particular because their government requires a SR1,502 ($400) minimum wage before the workers can be given clearance for departure. David added that many of these drivers are professionals who signed contracts in the Philippines to work as engineers and architects, but after arriving in Saudi Arabia they were assigned to be drivers under the replaced contract.

He cited one case where a worker signed a two-year contract with a recruitment agency in Manila to work as a civil engineer with a salary of about SR3,200 a month on April 8, 2009, but when he arrived he was given a new contract as a truck driver earning a SR700 basic salary plus SR300 as a food and transportation allowance — about two-thirds of the OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers) minimum wage.

Furthermore the company is denying the requisite annual paid vacation or allowing the worker to resign to be sent back. As an engineer, the worker would be eligible for at least 21 days of paid leave and a round-trip ticket home; as a driver, he is only allowed annual leave and the ticket every other year.

Additionally, the workers claim the company is delaying salaries by up to three months and in some cases only paying a portion of the money owed. They also claim verbal abuse, denial of sick leave and charging them for renewal of work visas.

Workers that have completed their two-year contracts (the duration of the validity of the work visa) are not allowed to leave on their own will to return home.

“They feel helpless and have sought the help of both the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Alkhobar and Migrante-Eastern Province chapter,” David said.

He added that 11 of the workers have filed a complaint with the Saudi labor court against their employer, which has turned a deaf ear to their complaints.

“A hearing on their case has been scheduled on June 8,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante Middle East regional coordinator, told Arab News.

The name of the company is being withheld because it is an ongoing case. –RODOLFO ESTIMO JR. | ARAB NEWS