Monday, February 02, 2009

Labor Woes

I am pretty sure I blogged about this sometime ago, although I was unable to find anything about it with a cursory search. Perhaps I'll try to find it and exert a bit more effort later. No matter. The story remains status quo. The poor, old workers are still unpaid and are faring no better now than they were some four years ago when they filed their complaints of nonpayment of wages. The men - four of them - are seeking six years of unpaid earnings. Six years! They want their end of service benefits, and airline tickets back to Pakistan. They are SOL, if you ask me. And I don't make fun of these kinds of situations.

The factory they were employed at for many, many years has closed. The man that owned the factory died eleven years ago and his son took it over. His son made promises and his son hasn't kept any of those promises. Now the factory is being auctioned off in The Sandbox's version of foreclosure. The son, Walid Ezzi [a published name!], sounds a bit miffed, "There is nothing to be done to solve the workers' problem. Why are you writing about this again?" Perhaps Mr. Ezzi, authorities should be looking at your assets "to solve the workers' problem." Are you living in squalor with no money to buy food? Are you able to support your family in some way? How is it that were able to keep your father's company running so long? Never mind. The answer to that is simple. You didn't pay your workers. Apparently you didn't pay any of your debts either, or you wouldn't have 19,883,336SR [$5,330,653.08] in unpaid bills. Some might label a man like you, Walid Ezzi, a lowlife scum.

Throw him in jail until he can come up with some of the money. You don't accumulate that kind of debt and not having something to show for it. Do some searching. Freeze his bank account[s]. Freeze his families bank accounts as well. Sell all of his assets. His house. His Mercedes. Do whatever needs to be done. Pay the workers their due and punish Walid Ezzi. Make an example out of him. Let others know that what he did was wrong and it won't be tolerated. Nothing like a pending ten year prison sentence - to give a man some time to sort things out.

4 comments:

  1. Nothing like a kidney auction to inspire a man. I bid $200 for his left one.

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  2. $200 is the best you can do, Vermindust? That won't buy a ticket for the man to return home. Better make it $500.

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  3. the story is about my father..sabra
    it has been seven year that this man waleed ezzi is actually deceiving the company worker by saying that he will give the money in two month....
    but kingdom have its own justice rules...different for its own citizen and different for foriegner,,different for poor and different for rich.....

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  4. Aysha, I am so sorry to learn this. I have felt bad for all four of these men since I read the story sometime ago in the Arab News. As far as the "rules" being different - everyone knows that that is how things work here sometimes. I said in my post that there is money somewhere and they should be throwing Waleed Ezzi in jail until he takes care of matters. I hope that somehow things WILL work out and be resolved to the benefit of your father and his co-workers.

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