Institute for Migrant Rights
Railway line at Cianjur station, c. 1890 · KITLV, CC BY 4.0

Migration Jurisprudence from the South › Saudi Arabia

Workers’ wage claims against Saudi Oger

Execution Court, Riyadh (as reported) · Saudi Arabia · 2017-06 · National court

Citation: [case numbers to be added]
Type of case: Private
Outcome: Decided for the migrant side

Question

Can workers enforce labour judgments for unpaid wages against a large construction company in financial difficulty?

What the court decided

As reported, the court ordered the company to pay the delayed wages, gave it the grace period allowed by the rules, and began steps to attach its assets.

In plain language

Tens of thousands of workers of many nationalities at Saudi Oger went months without pay. Labour judgments in their favour were sent to the execution court, which ordered payment and moved to seize company assets.

Dalam bahasa sederhana

Puluhan ribu pekerja berbagai kebangsaan di Saudi Oger tidak digaji berbulan-bulan. Putusan perburuhan yang memenangkan mereka dikirim ke pengadilan eksekusi, yang memerintahkan pembayaran dan mulai menyita aset perusahaan.

Pertanyaan: Bisakah pekerja menegakkan putusan upah yang belum dibayar terhadap perusahaan konstruksi besar yang sedang kesulitan keuangan?

What happened afterwards

  • 2016: Wage delays; many workers return home with claims pending.
  • 2017-06: Payment ordered (reported).
  • 2019: The court estimates about SAR 2.6 billion owed. [Check.]
  • 2024-02: A repayment scheme begins; some former workers receive cheques.

Sources

Open this decision in the interactive collection (compare, filter, Indonesian view, downloads).

Cite as: Institute for Migrant Rights (2026), Migration Jurisprudence from the South, version 0.1, https://theimr.org/court-decisions/d/sa-oger-2017/. This page summarizes a court decision for research and advocacy; it is not legal advice.

For researchers

This collection of decisions is built for empirical legal scholarship and socio-legal research on migration and the rights of migrant workers, as well as for advocacy.

The coded variables support statistical analysis in law: cross-national comparison, regression and event-history designs, and law and economics questions such as how recruitment fees, wage protection and limits on changing employer affect migrant workers. The data can be downloaded for replication.

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