More than 200 overseas Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia have stopped working in protest of alleged violation of labor laws.

According to Manila based broadsheet The Inquirer, the employees, who work for the Al Arab Contracting Company have complained of delayed salaries, illegal deductions and non payment of overtime.

They were forced to sign new contracts containing provisions different from the ones stated in their previous contracts, which their recruiters secured for them back in the Philippines; watchdog Migrante Middle East told the Philippines based newspaper.

Mr John Leonard Monterona the regional coordinator for Migrante Middle East quoted one of the workers as saying that “Until today, we’re still awaiting our November 2009 salaries. When we were recruited from the Philippines, we were not informed that the company will withhold our 2 month salary until we finish our contract. This means that the company didn’t follow Article 61.1 of the Saudi Labor Law.”

Mr Monterona said that the workers wrote to the human resources manager but complained that their concerns were not addressed so contacted the Migrante’s Riyadh based affiliate, the Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan and the Philippine Embassy.

He said that “The OFWs, however, expressed their dissatisfaction with the answers provided to them by the our officials and after sensing that their complaints would lead to nowhere, all collectively decided to stop working starting February 6th 2010.”

(Sourced from www.arabianbusiness.com)