‘Saudi Oger employees will be moved to other firms’

KHOBAR (Saudi Arabia): Employees of troubled construction company Saudi Oger will be moved to other firms, said the Saudi labour ministry, amid unconfirmed reports that the workers will be laid off from July 31.

The ministry said there were 1,200 Saudis among a total of 8,000 workers at the company, which was owned by the family of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad alHariri and had built many huge infrastructure projects in the kingdom, from universities and roads to airports and hospitals.

It said it planned to move some 600 Saudi employees to other facilities and would continue to look for jobs for the remaining Saudis working there.

The ministry was also working with Saudi Oger to transfer 6,000 foreign workers to other firms.

A document described as an internal Saudi Oger memo notified employees that July 31 would be the last working day there, in light of “the circumstances that the company is going through”.

The letter, which was also mentioned There are 1,200 Saudis among a total of 8,000 workers at Saudi Oger, which is owned by the Lebanese Prime Minister’s family. in a news article by Saudiowned newspaper al-Hayat on Saturday, was signed by the administration of Saudi Oger.

The letter did not specify whether the company would close down operations.

Sources said Saudi Oger planned to transfer some staff working on a mega government project to a new company, in an attempt to mitigate rising financial pressure.

The collapse in oil prices has prompted the Saudi government to tighten spending, hurting contractors such as Saudi Oger that rely on the state for most of their projects.

The contractor owes banks in the kingdom about 13 billion riyals (RM14 billion) and faces a funding crisis because it has not received any new funds from the government for projects. Reuters