Gulf | Oman Catering group meets 92 workers’ demand in Lekhwair

The top management of the S J Abed & Al Sulaimi Catering Group LLC have promised to address all the problems raised by their 92 employees. Gulf News reported (July 27) about the complained filed by 92 employees of the company with the Indian Embassy via the Indian Social Club’s Social Welfare Secretary, regarding a host of issues that the employees had with the employers, who are contracted with the Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) to run a motel in Lekwair. “Some of the complaints are exaggerated by some of the wasted interests but we had promised them to look into the issues right from the day they raised them,” Raghavendra Adiga, company’s resident manager told Gulf News today. He agreed that company was withholding Civil Service Cards (labour card) of expatriate employees, which contravenes the Labour Law of the country. “We have had a case of seven employees absconding and some had lost their cards so we had kept them with us for safe custody,” he said, adding that after the employees objected, the company had returned the labour cards to each employee. The company started its operations in Oman last year but Adiga said that the company has had 30 years of catering experience in Nigeria with 6000 man strength serving Bule chip companies like Shell, Chevron etc. “We are determined to uphold every labour regulation of Oman and will do so,” he stressed. He alleged that some of the allegations levelled by employees were baseless and instigated by few individuals for their personal gain. “I have had meetings with the Indian embassy officials, as well as Mr. Jabir, explained to them that some of the allegations like physical abuse were not true,” he pointed out. Gulf News