Arab News reports that a group of Saudis, all working for Saudia Catering, which provides food service to airlines using the nation’s airports, has filed a list of complaints against the company. The allegations state that the company, through its hiring and employment practices, is endangering national security, is in violation of Saudization regulations, treats its employees shabbily, and is even causing divorces.
What’s interesting is that they are taking the issue to the media, which this time is naming names, in an effort to get the problems fixed.
Labor Office investigating catering firm
Samir Al-Saadi | Arab NewsJEDDAH: The Labor Office in Jeddah is investigating a major catering firm that supplies meals to over 30 airlines, including Saudi Arabian Airlines, after over 100 Saudi employees filed a case complaining of discrimination and slave-like work conditions.
In a signed document, 112 Saudia Catering employees alleged that the company is violating labor laws and endangering national security by employing overstayers in its operations department — the final line before food and drink are boarded onto aircraft.
Employees say they are fed up with the company’s illegal activities and are supporting their allegations with evidence collected over several months, a copy of which Arab News acquired.
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January:07:2009 - 08:56
You might be interested to know that one of the reason why the media is adverse to publishing names is that in this story in the print edition the company was erroneously cited as “Saudi Catering” which is a real company as well. The CEO contacted Arab News and was livid at the translation error (to be fair: translating Saudi and Saudia could be an easy mistake to make). The error was fixed online, so it’s good to see you have the fixed version. I’m hoping this mistake doesn’t have a chilling effect on naming companies, but this is one of the reasons why they don’t: lazy newbie journalism. Saudi Catering has wasta, too. The paper is lucky there isn’t going to be a lawsuit. That’s the Saudi media’s big fear: not a mistake, but a mistake that bereaves a person of high standing that has wasta.
Papers wouldn’t hesitate to publish identifiable pictures of some woman’s beheaded child (like what happened last year in a couple of the Arabic newspapers) and they have no problem wronging nobodies but the fear is offending the wrong person, a “somebody.”
January:07:2009 - 09:18
I certainly understand the desire to avoid accountability for stupid mistakes. But the solution is to prevent the stupid mistakes, of course!
Luckily, Saudi society is not as litigious as American society, so apologies for mistakes can often fix things. Unluckily, wasta can exact non-transparent penalties limited only by the outrage of the offended.
January:08:2009 - 19:39
That seems to be the case (that “apologies for mistakes can often fix things”). A correction was published. None of this is reflected on the web site. Interesting to note that the head of “Saudi Catering” is Indian. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I guess.