Job Discussion Forums

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

Contract at your own peril.

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010071778310&archiveissuedate=17/07/2010

GladToBeFree · Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 45

I totally agree, for more reasons than this teacher's. I was there. Still, gotta say I admire this guy's persistence. At first thought it bordered on obsession. Now I say to Professor Braun, "Get what is yours."

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

Evidently that was the fourth seminar in Perilous Persistence 101, preceded by:

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010011059675&archiveissuedate=10/01/2010

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010012761480&archiveissuedate=27/01/2010

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010042870702&archiveissuedate=28/04/2010

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

Evidently someone hacked into PowerPoint for the fifth seminar in Perilous Persistence 101.

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010072679197

RUBALKHALI · Joined: 10 Sep 2009 Posts: 71 Location: DESERTSTORM

With all the comments that have been shed on this forum about Al Shabakah, I wonder if any new teachers would ever consider working for them.

What really appalled me about Shabakah, was the way, one day, when I was talking to one of the 3 coniving brothers...who own it...shooed away with the back of his hand a legitimate request from one of their slaves about money matters...of course.

Then, I worked with a very nice Jordanian man who is also stuck with them also like a slave...of course he tried to break free but the brothers make sure he can't excape...and they just give enough to keep him quiet.

Oh yes, those were the bad old days at al Shabakah.

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

AN OPEN LETTER TO DOCTOR MOFARAGE AL HAQBANI, DEPUTY MINISTER OF LABOR, SAUDI ARABIA

Wednesday 4 August 1020 � 23 Shaban 1431

Attention: Dr Mofarage Al Haqbani, Deputy Minister of Labor

Fax 01-210-4564

Dear Doctor Mofarage

For the past three weeks I have been wasting my SAWA credit attempting in vain to speak personally with you regarding my case. I have received no salary for the past twenty months, relying on occasional small zakat from a few sympathetic friends, a bit of iftar when annually available, and am generally in a state of abject hunger, and near despair. Use of a mobile is a luxury I can ill afford.

I estimate that I have attempted to contact you and other Deputies nearly one hundred times. The proverbial needle is stuck: He is not in his office, he has not arrived for the day, he has gone home for the day, he is in a meeting, he is not available so call back in thirty minutes�sorry not available, mafi maloom English. Or some secretary simply hangs up when I request: �Deputy Minister Doctor Mofarage Al Haqbani, please.� Often my call is answered with prolonged dead silence. I have received similar responses from your colleagues� secretaries comfortably twiddling teacups at desks all along your corridor.

Your secretaries have received my mobile number countless times. They assure me of your return phone call, inshallah. I now have no alternative other than to assume that either your persistent unwillingness to speak with me, or the negligence of your secretaries to give you the mobile number, may be attributed to the power of Almighty Allah. Quite frankly, I cannot conceive of Allah willing to wield power as consistently and wildly merciless as the Ministry of Labor�s.

Last week a secretary of yours informed me: �You�ve been without salary for twenty months; surely you can survive one more day for Doctor Mofarage�s call.� I am still waiting, sir.

The Prophet Mohammad, resting within the same sort of blessed peace to which I aspire, says: �Whosoever removes a worldly grief from a believer, Allah will remove from him one of the �griefs� of the Day of Judgment. Whosoever relieves the condition of a needy person, Allah will alleviate his condition in this world and the next.� Of what is the civil service comprised? Is it not within the mandate of the Ministry of Labor to mediate the just and right elimination of reported workplace �griefs� experienced daily across this Kingdom? Is it not a ministerial duty to relieve the condition of horribly victimized workers, be they Saudi or migrant, across the Kingdom?

I have here an official English translation of your Labor laws, and I encourage you to momentarily set aside your tea and reach toward the bookshelf for your Arabic edition; I have little confidence indeed in your memory of them and their implications.

Are your Preliminary and High Committee courts in any respect aware of Part 14, Article 221: Cases arising from the provisions of this Law shall be reviewed promptly?

What is your Ministry�s definition of promptly? Its synonyms in my language are motive words: expediently, rapidly, straightaway, speedily, instantly, quickly, likety-split, swiftly, unhesitatingly, hastily, on the double, on the dot. Are there any equivalents in Arabic? Not in your Ministry�s thesaurus, it seems, nor in the energy beverages its officials are motivated to imbibe.

My experience over twenty months of procedural agony in your courts indicate nothing more than official supreme proficiency in Part 13, Article 207: The Ministry shall prepare forms for recording violations, inspection records, notices and warnings, and shall establish the provisions necessary for the filing and use of such forms and for their distribution to labor offices.

Three weeks ago I was assured by one of Good, Righteous and Excellent Minister Dr Ghazi Al Gosaibi�s secretaries that a two-page fax would be distributed to three of his deputy ministers. That fax was a copy of a letter I wrote to the manager of your High Committee court in Riyadh. I assume you received your copy.

Two pages is very brief indeed for a narrative that could comprise an epic novel plus Foreward, Chapters, Appendix, Glossary, Index, a smattering of political cartoons, and your name in Dedication. Recurring motif: A Battle Without a Hope.

It�s in the works, believe me.

In shorter summary here today, an astute PhD should comprehend that fax�s subtext: My ongoing case is indicative of a court system understaffed, overworked, dysfunctional, counterproductive, nothing other than a venue to which plaintiffs and defendants deliver paper to supplement already burgeoning dust laden closets. And then to administer directives to wait and return for another session, for another session, for another session along the dim tunnel named Jurisprudence According to Labor -- at its end hardly a glimmer.

Thus the system you superintend, sir, further intensifies the traumatic victimization of workers whose fundamental human rights are set aside in accordance with whimsical vicissitudes of judges arrogant of their platform. Compassion and natural justice, apparently, are not within your Ministry�s lexicon. Your court system suffers from the poisonous intoxication of truly unwarranted procedural rigmarole and panic-induced institutionalized helplessness. Small wonder the preponderant sedative-hypnotics.

I am not by any stretch of imagination satisfied with your High Committee court manager�s three-sentence reply. My translator informs me of two sentences of substance: Thank you for your letter. It was placed in your court file.

MOVRUK! Article 207 LIVE and IN PERSON! Salary increase! Promotion to follow!

This morning your secretary informed me that, according to Doctor Mofarage, �You received the court�s response and the matter is finished.�

MUSHALLA! Article 221�s duty PROMPTLY fulfilled!

In anticipation of your personal professional comprehensive reply earlier than the Ministry�s customary earliest convenience, I remain,

Sincerely yours

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

Perilous Persistence 101: Supplementary Bibliography

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/05/28/saudi-arabia-companys-workers-unpaid-trapped

http://www.news-sa.com/snews/859-2010-02-07-00-09-10.html

http://www.hailnews.net/hail/news.php?action=show&id=12472

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

24 April 2010

Attention: Navanethem Pillay
United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais Wilson
52 rue des Paquis
CH-1201 Geneva

Dear Madam Commissioner

Regarding Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Labor High Commission for the Settlement of Labor Disputes, Riyadh, Case #430/2/287, wrongful dismissal, defendant Mohammad Al Saadoun of Al Shabaka Training Establishment, agency under contract from King Faisal University in Hofuf to provide curriculum, foreign teachers, accommodation, visa sponsorship and health insurance for the university's English Preparatory Year Program, the same agency which outsourced curriculum supply and teacher recruitment to University Canada West, Victoria, Canada.

This lawsuit was initiated in December 2008. Judgment was made in Hofuf's Preliminary Labor court in my favor in April 2009. Al Shabaka appealed and I received notice to appear at the High Commission court in Riyadh for a hearing dated in mid-November 2009. I had been assured multiple times by an officer of the Saudi Commission for Human Rights that a translator would be provided. I attended the court hearing alone to discover that no translator would be provided. I was directed to return after three months.

In late January 2010 my translator and I attended a second High Commission court hearing at the venue designated on the invitation. We discovered a sealed entrance and a billboard advising of a change of location. Unfamiliar with Riyadh's streets and suburbs, and after numerous calls for directions to a Preliminary court judge who himself was unaware of the location change, my translator and I eventually arrived at the court two hours late. A court clerk marked us tardy. We were advised to return after three months.

This past Wednesday, 21 April 2010, my translator and I again motored to Riyadh, 3 1/2 hours distant, to submit a one-page document (attached below) in anticipation of finally receiving justice. The judge, who refused to identify himself by name, accepted my passport details for attendance records. He received my written submission. He punched two holes into its edge, inserted it into his file binder, and declared, "Come back after three months."

I asked the judge to read my submission. He refused, repeated his directive and summoned his next case. I exited in a state of despair.

Ministry of Labor law states "Lawsuits resulting from provisions of this Law shall be resolved promptly." Seemingly, the High Commission court violates its own regulations at its own convenience. Justice delayed is justice denied.

When I was personally given the termination letter on 30 November 2008 by Saadoun Al Saadoun, Shoura Council member ("Senate") and brother to Mohammad, I remarked that there might be consequences. He gave me his guarantee that "all human rights will be given to you." He repeated himself. Seemingly, Saadoun Al Saadoun violates his own assurances at his own convenience.

I have now been without salary for 17 months. I have not been able to gain employment in Saudi Arabia due to this protracted court case. I have been hospitalized twice, each for two weeks, due to mental collapse. I fear repeated hospitalization due to the questionable quality of psychiatric care in Saudi Arabia. I have no health insurance at an age marked by a propensity for heart failures. My meager supply of clothing is tattered, an embarrassment to wear in public. My sandals no longer provide sufficient protection in this harsh climate. New clothing and footwear are a luxury I cannot afford. The illegal visa issued to me 20 months ago in Canada (the same issued to 25 other unwitting foreign teachers) is renewed monthly at onerous cost by authority of Prince Ahmad bin Abdulaziz. Often I beg for food at neighbourhood restaurants and foodshops, and am occasionally given small amounts of pocket money from sympathetic friends. I am not able to access funds from Canada because I do not have a bank account here. I do not have a bank account because I do not possess an iqama, the required proper residence permit. There have been occasions I have gone without sustenance for up to two weeks. Last year during Ramadan I was refused partaking of iftar (the Islamic traditional complimentary shared meal) at a local mosque because I am a Christian.

Over the past year there have been financial obligations and familial urgencies in Canada which have under the circumstances remained unattended. I am very near retirement age. My professional career in Education continues to be disrupted. Likely it will never be recovered.

For 19 months I have been victimized in Saudi Arabia by endemic corruption in the Higher Education sector, and an recalcitrant judge within a dysfunctional Labor court system devoid of simple human compassion. I have repeatedly of my own volition issued grievances to proper governmental authorities, and in one case writing a 26-page corruption report by royal invitation. An investigation was launched thirteen months ago. Despite my repeated requests to appropriate authorities, I have` yet to receive any official response, other than the committee's report is labelled Classified. Similarly, my correspondences to royal officials remain unanswered.

Quite simply, Madam Commissioner, I seek restorative justice here in Saudi Arabia. I appeal to your offices for your assistance at your very earliest convenience.

Respectfully

cc: Human Rights Watch, Toronto, Canada

GladToBeFree · Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 45

PJ (42) and his brother (41 - also a manager) are totally without any standards.

I well remember something that happened less than a month before my group left. A van full of us were coming back from Bahrain and we encountered a major jam at the border on the causeway. It took us about two hours to get through the two Bahrain posts, and then we had to get into Saudi. That took another hour. Cars were squeezing in from all directions and PJ exploded at some of the drivers, telling them things I thought sure were banned in KSA.

When we went through the customs post, we weren't searched, but his brother was so drunk he couldn't even stand up on his own.

So what did PJ do? He wadded up the customs declaration and threw it, hitting me in the face with it, then he told me to reach down and pick it up! I refused and made PJ do it. But when we got to the last window, where the customs form is to be handed in, he threw it again, hitting the Saudi official with the ball. The gate came right down and other officers appeared with guns. Myself and another guy were able to talk to them which kept us from being arrested, but they sure gave PJ a hard time, and rightly so. If they'd seen the condition his brother was in, I'm not sure we'd have gotten back into KSA.

This is what we expected from PJ near the end. He didn't dare go to the farewell party we threw, because by then, he knew he was despised by all of us, except for 3 of the guys who he liked because they acted the most like him. One of these men, BTW, had a felony record from Indiana, but substituted a California criminal record check to hide it. PJ knew about this, and helped this guy win a second-year placement as a manager.

He extended a contract to the women's manager for renewal, then rescinded it days later, saying she wasn't "cooperative". PJ also extended a contract to the teacher who made the first English Fest a success, then took that one back as well for no good reason.

PJ cannot be trusted.

sheikher · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 291

Can this be the same PJ as in pjhonestrecruiting? who is subcontracted by Al Shabaka's Chairman, himself a member of King Abdullah's "righteous" Shoura Council?

http://shabakatraining.com/

Can this be the same agency that sponsors illegal business visit visas? That endorses illegal health insurance applications?

Impossible!

Grendal · Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:01 pm Post subject:

Thank you Sheikher for keeping your last post under 10000 words. I reaaly get more information from this than your copy/pasted posts. Again thank you very much. Whew.........

Now onto more juicy stuff. The sibling hierarchy or demigods are getting to a point of no return it seems. When I was there, before the the degenerative duo, I got no real help from PJ other than the occasional stab in the back. Now with a double barrel shotgun they have seemingly overrun the bridge and taken over the ship. Their "Christian God" can only protect them so much. Their time is running out in the land of "The One True Allah". May I say Glad to be free, that you are not the only one who has noticed PJ's erratic behavior.

I was once an entity that floated through the halls of KFU too. I remember his unwillingness to help my cause after Mr. C.D. left as head teacher. Just a few months ago my wife and I applied and got news from him that they (the review commitee) couldn't hire us because she didn't have enough experience (I knew this was BS as soon as I heard it). He didn't want us there because he has his own agenda. I recall seeing the blueprints of a house he wants to build back home on his laptop one day. When I asked him about it he said that that was why he was there, to save up for the required constuction costs. Well it's been two years now and I believe he must almost be there. When he leaves, and leaves soon God willing, I hope Mr. C.D. gets his position back because he was really the right guy for the job. C.D. runs a tight ship and is a little militaristic but that's better than a hockey camp.

I am sorry to say P.J., if you're reading this, that you really do not deserve your position as head teacher and the you should give it up or resign from it. I just hope you're not priming your brother for the job because that would be a catastophy from which Shabaka may not be able to recover from. If you are reading this P.J. than you know who I am and you should know that I will be in Saudi for my third tour of duty and I will come and see Dr. S. and give him my expeiences with you. I am not after my old job nor yours! I am after justice and it will be served one way or another.

This is my last comment on this matter. I'll be a 2 hour drive away from Al-Hassa in September and will come and visit Dr. S. at my first convenience. What kind of real experience does one really need to work with a blithering idiot that runs the PYP section at KFU anyways? The only real job qualification is sucking up, brown nosing, and betrayal of all others that don't do the same.

Grendal

Grendal · Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:40 am Post subject:

word

johnslat · Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 3:08 am Post subject:

Dear Grendal,

Is that your last word on the subject?

Regards,
John

lazycomputerkids · Joined: 22 Sep 2009 Posts: 360 Location: Tabuk

sharter · Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 878 Location: All over the place

Stop fussing...it'll all be sorted out for sure, definitely, one hundred and ten percent....INSHALLAH....which really means; please disregard every promise I've made.