Indian workers in Oman protest non-payment of wages

DUBAI: About 500 Indians workers have protested in Oman, demanding action against their company for not paying them for working overtime and deducting random amount from their salary every month.

The workers marched to the nation's Manpower Ministry office in Suwaiq, about 136km north to Muscat, a Gulf News report said.

A worker for the Al Radic Construction company said "We are not given the mandatory five-day weekend and the owners also don't pay overtime for working extra hours."

According to him, a ministry official intervened and asked the striking workers to come to the department instead of marching on the road.

"The workers boarded about four to five buses and were taken to the ministry department," a resident from Suwaiq said.

"This is the same company that had not renewed Labour cards of more than 500 workers," said P M Jabir, Welfare Secretary of the Indian Social Club.

He said following intervention of the Indian Embassy and newspaper reports, the company had renewed the labour cards.

On the random salary cuts, a worker said the company had told them that they were following new regulations.

"Our contract says nothing about salary cuts," the worker said, adding instead of paying overtime for making them work more 45 hours a week, the company was depriving low-wage workers their hard earned money.

"We need justice and are confident that the ministry will resolve the issue and hope our embassy will take up the issue with the company and the local authorities," the worker said.