{"id":22291,"date":"2016-08-08T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T14:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/?p=22291"},"modified":"2016-08-08T21:18:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T14:18:21","slug":"arabtec-chief-says-situation-with-unpaid-filipino-workers-in-saudi-blown-out-of-proportion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-chief-says-situation-with-unpaid-filipino-workers-in-saudi-blown-out-of-proportion\/","title":{"rendered":"Arabtec chief says situation with unpaid Filipino workers in Saudi 'blown out of proportion'"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe chief of Arabtec Construction pledged to pay all Filipino workers employed by a Saudi joint venture contractor in full.Raja Hani Ghanma, the chief executive of UAE contractor Arabtec Construction, has said the plight of the workers had “been blown out of proportion”.The National reported last week that the Philippines government’s Overseas Workers Welfare Administration had listed Arabtec Construction as one of nine companies whose Filipino workers have been offered grants in lieu of salaries or end-of-service payments owed by their employers. “Let me get a few things straight. First of all, this is not Arabtec Construction we are talking about. This is Arabtec Saudi Arabia, which is a joint venture with the Saudi Binladin Group and another Saudi group, Mawrid Holding,” he said. Mr Ghanma said that only a handful of Filipinos are on the books of Arabtec Saudi Arabia, and that they will all be repatriated with end-of-service benefits paid in full within the next month. He said that Arabtec Saudi Arabia had only employed 479 Filipino workers. Of these, 222 have already been transported back to the Philippines (mostly on final exit visas with full end-of-service benefits) and 211 have had their papers transferred to other employers in Saudi Arabia. “That leaves you with 46 people – 36 have absconded and we have 10 remaining with \u00adfinal exists in their hands [who] will be leaving at the end of the month,” he said.He accepted that there had been problems at Arabtec Saudi Arabia, especially around the late payment of employees’ wages.”I can’t say that everybody has been paid on time, but ultimately everybody gets paid and they get whatever entitlements [owed],” said Mr Ghanma. When asked about the plight of other nationalities working for this joint venture, Mr Ghanma said: “We are trying our level best to sort it out, given the problems that our partner [Saudi Binladin Group] is suffering from. But we are not just going to leave people stranded.” Arabtec Saudi Arabia was set up as a joint venture in 2009 and contains a number of subsidiaries including an MEP arm, a construction machinery company and a ready-mix concrete business. Notes to Arabtec Holding’s 2015 accounts show that at the end of 2014, these businesses had a net asset value of Dh860.5m. However, this shrank to Dh310.6m last year after a disastrous year’s trading during which it declared a loss of Dh520.8m from revenue of Dh358.7m. At its peak, Arabtec Saudi Arabia and its subsidiaries employed almost 10,000 people, which has since shrunk to fewer than 1,000. Negotiations are continuing either to divest or wind down this business, Mr Ghanma said. Despite this, he said that Arabtec Holding continues to view Saudi Arabia as an important market, which it will serve through its wholly owned subsidiary, Arabtec Construction. “We’re still basically eyeing the Saudi market in a big way,” said Mr Ghanma. “Strategically, it is an important market for us. We feel it has great potential and we have something to offer in Saudi Arabia.”mfahy@thenational.ae Follow The National’s Business section on Twitter
\n
\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Arabtec chief says situation with unpaid Filipino workers in Saudi ‘blown out of proportion’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The chief of Arabtec Construction pledged to pay all Filipino workers employed by a Saudi...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-5Nx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22849,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-still-in-the-red-but-losses-reduced-by-74-per-cent\/","url_meta":{"origin":22291,"position":0},"title":"Arabtec still in the red but losses reduced by 74 per cent","date":"August 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The Dubai contractor Arabtec posted its seventh successive quarterly loss for the three months to June 30, although an increase in revenue has meant the scale of its losses narrowed.The company posted a net loss attributable to its parent company of Dh186.4 million \u2014 a 74 per cent reduction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2496,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-wins-main-contract-for-new-bahrain-airport-terminal\/","url_meta":{"origin":22291,"position":1},"title":"Arabtec wins main contract for new Bahrain airport terminal","date":"January 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Arabtec is set to scoop the US$1.1 billion main contract to build a new terminal at Bahrain International Airport. In a statement to the Dubai Financial Market, the company said it had received a letter of intent from Bahrain\u2019s ministry of transport and telecommunications to award the contract\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49718,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-chief-says-a-shake-up-is-on-the-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":22291,"position":2},"title":"Arabtec chief says a shake-up is on the way","date":"March 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r A major shake-up of Arabtec's management is under way as part of its restructuring.Hamish Tyrwhitt, the new chief executive who was appointed last November, told The National that \"by two-to-three months' time, probably 60-70 per cent of my direct reports will be new to the company\".\"I've already put in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49178,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-is-on-top-of-risks-says-firms-chief\/","url_meta":{"origin":22291,"position":3},"title":"Arabtec is on 'top of risks', says firm's chief","date":"March 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Hamish Tyrwhitt, the chief executive of Arabtec, which has about Dh6 billion worth of trade and other receivables owed to it, expects the company to be \"on top\" of its risks as the builder pursues outstanding payments and prepares to raise Dh1.5bn in a rights issue as it seeks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2494,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-jv-receives-letter-of-intent-for-bahrain-airport-modernisation-works\/","url_meta":{"origin":22291,"position":4},"title":"Arabtec JV receives letter of intent for Bahrain airport modernisation works","date":"January 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Arabtec and its joint venture partner TAV Construction have received a letter of intent to complete the main modernisation works at Bahrain International Airport, the Dubai-listed contractor said on Sunday.The statement gave no details, including the value of the contract, the cost or the timetable for the project,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8632,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/arabtec-lands-dh1-7bn-housing-contract-in-fujairah\/","url_meta":{"origin":22291,"position":5},"title":"Arabtec lands Dh1.7bn housing contract in Fujairah","date":"March 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r Arabtec has won a Dh1.7 billion contract to build 1,100 houses for Emiratis in Fujairah.The UAE government's Ministry of Presidential Affairs awarded the contract for the homes that will be built on a 2.15 square kilometre plot at Mohammed bin Zayed City.Work is due to start immi\u00adnently and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}