Workers contracted to work for western brands in Saudi Arabia have described conditions as ‘like jail’
Corporations are paying for worker abuse audits that are ‘designed to fail’, say insidersOver the years the world’s most powerful fast-food chain, McDonald’s, has twice honored a Saudi prince’s business empire with its highest accolade for its franchisees: the Golden Arch award.– told CEO Magazine in 2018 that one of the secrets of his enterprise’s success is “ensuring a positive and favorable environment for our employees”.Macrae Lee and Buddhiman Sunar recall a different environment.
The workers who provided information for this investigation were employed through various arrangements. Amazon said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned” some of its contract workers were not treated with “the dignity and respect they deserve”. The InterContinental Hotels Group and the Chuck E Cheese brand’s parent, CEC Entertainment, said they took fair treatment of workers very seriously.Many of the 97 current and former workers interviewed for this story agreed to be identified by name.
An assistant restaurant manager for Chuck E Cheese in the Persian Gulf region confirms that it’s “company policy” for the brand’s franchises in Saudi Arabia and theto hold workers’ passports – to make sure they don’t “run away from the company and work in other companies”. CEC Entertainment did not address a question about the passport issue, but said that it regularly inspected Chuck E Cheese restaurants in the region “to assess their operations, and during these visits, we have neither observed nor received reports of improper activities by our franchisees”.Workers at Chuck E Cheese and Amazon say Arab firms partnering with the big brands make it difficult for them to resign.
Fryszman and other anti-trafficking experts say big corporations should aggressively monitor the labor practices of their subsidiaries and partners in the Persian Gulf region, which is known for weak labor protections and abuses against migrant workers. “I asked McDonald’s why my salary was less than what it says in my contract. McDonald’s told me to ask my recruitment agency. But my recruitment agency told me to ask McDonald’s,” Lee says.
One current employee says RICC denied his resignation request, so he is now working in a McDonald’s uniform against his will. The worker, whose name and country of origin is being withheld to protect his identity, provided a screenshot of this resignation attempt. He says his managers told him he could not leave because of a “business need.”“I’m fed up. I want to leave,” he says. “They hired people from poor countries, so people are afraid to speak up.
In his 2018 interview with the Australia-based CEO Magazine, the prince said RICC benefits “from the strong support we get from the global corporation. We are privileged to have a high level of involvement from the McDonald’s global team in every aspect of our business.” One result of working for the Saudi labor contractors, workers say, is they earned roughly $350 a month doing day shifts at Amazon warehouses, while colleagues who did similar tasks but were direct employees of Amazon earned roughly $800 to $1,300 a month. Another result, the Nepali workers say, was that they were often targeted for terminations and layoffs while direct Amazon employees from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other places were generally secure in their positions.
Some of the workers at Amazon warehouses – and workers in the Persian Gulf region under the logos of McDonald’s, Chuck E Cheese and the InterContinental Hotels Group – say limits over their freedom of movement extend even to their requests for time off to attend funerals, births and other family events back in their home countries.
“After I finished my contract, I had to wait almost six weeks for the manager to give my release papers and passport,” he says. “I had no income during that time … I survived by eating a diet of just bread.” A worker at a Chuck E Cheese franchise in the UAE says her HR manager delays providing release papers to workers who want to resign “to punish the staff who want to go”.
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