PARIS (Reuters) – French supermarket retailer Carrefour said on Monday it is reviewing how its staff are treated at its Saudi Arabia franchise Majid Al Futtaim, after Amnesty International raised concerns over how staff were treated in the country.
A report by Amnesty International, published on Monday, said some staff working at the Carrefour/Majid Al Futtaim stores in Saudi Arabia were underpaid and overworked, and were especially vulnerable due to their migrant status.
In response to the Amnesty report, Carrefour said: “In order to make sure there are no breaches of human rights regarding the direct and indirect business activities of our franchise partner, we have decided to conduct a wide-ranging investigation, covering all human rights aspects.”
“We have appointed an independent expert to carry this out,” Carrefour said.
Workers told Amnesty International that they were forced to work 60-hour weeks and were at times unpaid for overtime and forced to go without rest days, in violation of Saudi labour law which limits maximum working hours to 48 per week.
The Saudi government media communications office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Amnesty’s allegations and Carrefour’s response.
Reuters has previously reported on migrant workers at other companies in Saudi Arabia going for months with unpaid wages while living in unsanitary conditions in desert camps.
Hundreds of Indian workers sued a Saudi construction firm in 2020 over unpaid earnings after they were laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Susan Fenton)
