20 Indian workers stranded in Saudi Arabia without salary

The workers have accused a local company of not giving their salaries, food and any means of support for the past six months.

"We are 20 Indian employees stranded at Bader H Al-Hussaini & Sons in Jubail. The company has not given us our salaries, food or any means of support for the past six months," a worker was quoted as saying by the Arab News.

"We are helpless and cannot support ourselves and our families. We want to go back to India but they do not want to send us back. Please help us and highlight our case in the media as soon as possible," he said.

However, the chief executive officer and owner of the company, Bader Al-Hussaini, denied the allegations and said that he owes the workers only four months' wages.

"We have just paid them one salary this morning. We will pay them two salaries this week and the fourth salary as soon as we receive a check for about SR600,000 from an authority in Jubail for which we have done work," the company's owner claimed yesterday.

However, when he was told that he would be quoted in Arab News, he said: "Ignore what I have just said, everything at the company is all right. You can't publish this information."

The workers have disputed the owner's claim and said they had not received any money from the company.

The workers also alleged that one of their colleagues died five months ago but the company did not send his body home to his family.

Under the country's labour legislation, companies failing to pay the salaries of their workers on time are blacklisted.