Embassy looking into Bangladesh workers’ pay denial complaints

MUSCAT: Bangladesh Embassy officials in Muscat say they are looking into a case of 100 to 150 workers, who claim they have not been paid for up to nine months.

“We are following up with several cases where the workers haven’t been paid on time,” a senior official from the Bangladesh Embassy in Muscat, admitted.

The workers in Barka said they haven’t been paid regularly for one year. “We are working, but we are not getting paid on time. Every two to three months, we are getting paid once. The last salary I got was on July 9, 2017,” an employee said, who works as a carpenter.

“I get a monthly salary of OMR95 and an allowance of OMR25 every month. Just think of our condition, if we don’t get salary on time,” he said, adding that “a lot of employees have left the country as they were not getting the salary on time.”

Under Omani law, it is illegal to withhold a worker’s salary for more than seven days after the due payment date.

The official from the Bangladesh Embassy in Oman said they normally try to settle the matter between the sponsors and employees. “If the matter is not resolved, then we suggest the workers ap- proach the court,” the official said, adding, “It is always better to solve the issues amicably as court judgments take a lot of time.”

The workers further said that their salary settlement was not done even when they were leaving Oman. “The company paid some money and told them that they will send the due amount to their home accounts,” a worker said.

Earlier this month, workers at an engineering firm in Sohar complained that they had not been paid for months and were living without pay and proper food. But soon after, the Ministry of Manpower and the Indian Embassy in Muscat stepped in to help the 800 stranded workers of Sohar.

We are following up with several cases where the workers haven’t been paid on time,” a senior official of Bangladesh Embassy in Muscat admitted