Recruitment Office Lures Customers with Fake Offers of Domestic Helps

COMPLAINTS about misleading adverts or promotional offers that contain wrong information about a product or service, encouraging consumers to buy them, are not uncommon in the Kingdom. However, with the high penetration of Internet in Saudi society, the alarm bells started ringing about the way some people use social media to attract customers, indicating potentially widespread breaches of advertising regulations.

Some 40 people who had contracted a recruitment office in Al-Khobar in the Eastern Province to find them domestic workers lost their money, Al-Watan newspaper reported recently. The customers were lured to the office through promotional material posted on the Twitter account of one the famous religious preachers in the region. Obviously, the recruitment office has used the good reputation of the preacher to attract customers. Following the Twitter post, the number of customers who approached the recruitment office for hiring domestic workers multiplied, but after the passage of nine months none of them received the promised workers or the money they invested.

Sources in the Ministry of Labor and Social Development explained that the office had previously committed similar violations and was punished with closure. They said the ministry received new complaints from customers and was taking them seriously.

The victims accused the office of fraud to force the victims not to claim their rights at the Ministry of Labor, either by procrastinating, by sending false contracts to the labor office, or by fabricating excuses, even though they did not initiate any recruitment procedures according to Enjaz website that follows up on domestic workers’ recruitment.

Saad Barrak told Al-Watan that he had approached the recruitment office in Al-Khobar to hire a domestic worker at the beginning of 2017 and made an advance payment of SR10,000. The cost of the recruitment contract was SR15,000 and the remaining amount was to be paid after the domestic worker arrives in the Kingdom.

Barrak said after four months, it turned out that there was no recruitment process carried out through Enjaz. “I went to the office to get back the money I paid but the office procrastinated and fabricated excuses, despite the clause in the bylaws stipulating that if the agreed period ends, the contract will automatically become null and void,” he said, adding that he filed a complaint with the Labor Office in Al-Khobar.

Saleh Al-Qarni told Al-Watan that he was deceived by the same recruitment office in the same manner. He pointed out that he also filed a complaint with the Labor and Social Development Bureau in Al-Khobar, which called the recruitment office to inquire about the complaint.

“The office’s response was that I had made a verbal request to delay the recruitment process. The bureau accepted the response, closed the complaint and asked me to prove the contrary. I had to file another complaint, and to my surprise the recruitment office produced a forged contract with missing pages. In fact, the last page bearing the signatures was also missing. Although I had a valid copy of the contract, the Labor Office accepted the forged copy produced by the recruitment office. It asked me to accept the decision. I did not give up and went to check my case at the Labor Office in Al-Khobar and Dammam. It turned out that they had forwarded all complaints to the Ministry of Labor in Riyadh,” said Al-Qarni.

A source in the Ministry of Labor told Al-Watan that the case was pending with the committees. It added that there are more than 40 complaints against the same recruitment office. He confirmed that these complaints were received in less than 10 months and that the recruitment office was closed during the period.

He pointed out that in the past, several cases had accumulated against the recruitment office because of its lack of commitment to clients. It was reopened after meeting all its obligations to clients.

The source pointed out that the cases against the office were transferred to the Ministry to verify the validity of contracts.

Mohamed Al-Tamayat, a lawyer, said anyone who describes, advertises or displays an item in a manner that contains false or deceptive information could face a fine of between SR5,000 and SR100,000 for according to Article 1 of the Commercial Fraud Control Law.

He said advertising activity was governed through the press and publishing regulations. Article 2, Paragraph 13, of the regulations stipulates that advertising is subject to the provisions of the publications and publishing system. As for the need for obtaining a license, Article 4 says no advertising activity may be carried out until after obtaining the necessary license.

Al-Tamayat pointed out that any violator of the license law would face a fine of SR50,000 in accordance with Article 38 of the law. Article 37 says such offenses are considered by a three-member committee formed by a ministerial decision. One of the members of the committee should be a legal practitioner and the sentence is issued by the majority opinion after the alleged violator has been given the opportunity to explain his or her side.

(Source: SaudiGazette.com.sa)