Binladin Group said to pay more workers

Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) has started paying more of its employees their delayed salaries of about five months, according to local media reports.

Payments were made by SBG’s head office in Hamadaniyah district, east Jeddah on Saturday.

The laid-off workers said they were happy to have received their dues, with most adding that they would either look for alternative jobs with new sponsors or return to home countries, Saudi Gazette reported.

The financially troubled contractor was reported to have sold land to raise funds to pay workers their delayed salaries. It had also reportedly obtained loans from banks at SAR 2.5 billion.

According to the report, the director of the Makkah branch of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, Abdullah Al-Olayan, said the company paid more than 10,000 workers their dues in May and transferred the services of 16,000 personnel to new sponsors. The director said so far the company had terminated more than 69,000 of its workers.

The ministry has activated its computer services to renew the iqamas of the Binladin workers so that their bank accounts are not frozen, but the contractor is still restrained against fresh recruitment or change of job titles until its workers are paid all of their dues, Al-Olayan said.