Representatives of two construction companies in Saudi Arabia announced recently that migrant workers will get their long overdue unpaid wages, but gaps in the repayment scheme puts the payments at risk, Human Rights Watch said today.
Saudi authorities should ensure all former workers of these companies receive the full amount they are owed. The authorities should also put in place robust wage protection measures to address the rampant wage theft that migrant workers across the country experience.
"Migrant workers who were relieved after the announcement that they would finally be paid what they are owed want to remain optimistic despite almost a decade of waiting," said Michael Page, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "But it's critically important for the appointed bankruptcy and liquidation trustees, the Saudi authorities, and the migrants' countries of origin to ensure that these promises are fully carried out."
In 2016, following a period of low oil prices and an economic downturn in Saudi Arabia, several companies failed to pay hundreds of thousands of migrant workers their wages, leaving them stranded. In late 2023, Saudi Oger's Liquidation Trustees and Mohammad Al-Mojil Group (MMG)'s Bankruptcy Trustee, the trustees of the two Saudi-based construction companies, who faced such economic challenges and are currently in liquidation and bankruptcy respectively, announced that former employees should register for their payments.
The extent of unpaid wages is enormous. The Executive Court in Riyadh estimated in 2019 that the now-liquidated Saudi Oger owes an estimated SAR 2.6 billion (about US$693 million) in unpaid wages and other benefits to workers. Based on news sources and announcements from the migrants' countries of origin, at least 21,000 workers just from the Philippines, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are owed wages by these two companies.
In January 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed 27 migrant workers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Senegal who said they were formerly employed by Saudi Oger or MMG. Researchers also reviewed several workers' salary sheets and checks. The workers said they had worked between 3 and 20 years in Saudi Arabia and were owed as much as SAR 80,000 (about $21,333) by one of the companies, including end-of-service benefits.
Human Rights Watch also wrote to Saudi Oger's Liquidation Trustees, MMG's Bankruptcy Trustee, and Saudi Arabia's Alinma Bank requesting details and status of the repayment schedule, but has yet to receive a response.
