Workers at a hospital in eastern Saudi Arabia have gone on strike over unpaid wages, it emerged on Monday, in the kingdom's latest case of corporate and public financial difficulties.
Staff at Saad Specialist Hospital in the Gulf coast city of al-Khobar who stood outside the hospital on Monday morning, said the strike was launched this week because they "didn't receive any salary for three-and-a-half months," according to a nurse who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Almost all" the medical staff, which includes about 1,200 nurses, have joined the strike action in a country where labour unions are banned, the nurse said, noting that lower-paid housekeeping and security staff, who received wages, remain at work.
"They promised us, after Eid you will receive your salaries but we didn't," the nurse said, referring to Islamic holidays celebrated by Muslims across the world last week.
They are expected to escalate their grievances during a visit to the local governor's office and have warned they would continue the strike should no results be seen.
Only out-patient clinics are closed during the strike and urgent cases are not endangered, she said.
The hospital is part of Saudi-based firm, Saad Group, whose website states it runs "diversified businesses" in the Gulf and boasts investments around the globe.
The finance and construction corporation is controlled by Saudi billionaire Maan al-Sanea, who made headlines when he split from another Saudi business group, the Algosaibi family, in the wake of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
A spokesman for Saad Specialist Hospital could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Slumping oil revenues and intervention in Yemen have chipped away as Saudi Arabia's coffers in the past two years |  |
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of employees have been left unpaid as Saudi construction firms continued to face difficulty this year.
In March, sources told AFP that delayed receipts from the government, whose slumping oil revenues and intervention in Yemen have chipped away as its coffers in the past two years, had left employees of the kingdom's construction giants struggling.
In May, Saudi Binladin Group - one of the world's largest construction companies - began paying delayed wages to its remaining staff.
The company had also laid off tens of thousands of employees because of financial difficulties.
Asian activists and officials have said that thousands of jobless Indians, Filipinos, and Pakistanis were left stranded and destitute in Saudi Arabia following layoffs in August.
Some of them have been forced to beg or sift through garbage to survive after going unpaid for months, according to officials.
