Philippines sends SAR 40 mln aid to workers stuck at Saudi Oger

Filipino workers going without pay at construction giant Saudi Oger are set to receive a total of SAR 40 million in immediate aid from their home country’s government, according to media reports. 

A delegation dispatched by the Philippines’ newly-elected President Rodrgio Duterte arrived in Riyadh on Friday with the aid amount, Arab News reported, adding that each worker would receive SAR 1,667 in assistance, plus SAR 500 for his family back home.

Saudi Arabia’s construction sector has been hard-hit by a slowdown, as the government canceled or scaled down on several projects and postponed payments in the wake of falling oil prices.

Thousands of employees at the kingdom’s biggest construction firms, Saudi Oger and Saudi Binladin Group, have been dismissed, while others saw their wages delayed by several months.

The slowdown in the kingdom’s construction sector is expected to persist in the “foreseeable future” as a fiscal squeeze will continue to force cuts in capital expenditure, research consultancy Capital Economics (CE) said in a note on Thursday.

Ahead of the delegation’s visit to Riyadh, ACTS OFW Party-List Representative and labor advocate Aniceto “John” Bertiz III described the growing number of stranded OFWs in the kingdom as a “humanitarian crisis in need of urgent action,” Philippine daily Manila Bulletin reported on Friday.