As Saad Hariri visits Paris ahead of his hotly anticipated return to Beirut on Wednesday, hundreds of laid-off French employees of Saudi Oger, the Lebanese PM's construction and public works firm, are demanding millions in unpaid salaries, reports FRANCE 24.
The matter of contention is a nagging problem for the Saudi-Lebanese dual national, who arrived in Paris on Saturday on the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, the latest chapter in a curious saga of conjecture and recriminations since Hariri announced his resignation out of the blue on November 4th from inside Saudi Arabia.
“I find it crazy that the red carpet be rolled out for Saad Hariri without first requiring that he immediately pay the millions that he owes to French employees, considering that he and his family are sitting on colossal personal fortunes,” Caroline Wasserman, who is defending the interests of some 75 of the 240 laid-off French workers, told Agence France-Presse on Friday. The company is said to owe the ex-employees about 15 million euros.
Numerous petitions have been filed in the affair with a labour court in Bobigny, northeast of Paris. “French jurisdiction is competent since the employees had French contracts from the start and because the headquarters of Oger International, which is part of the same group, is located in Ile-de-France”, the greater Paris region, the lawyer told FRANCE 24 in July.
During a previous visit to Paris on September 1st, Lebanon’s businessman prime minister had committed in conversation with Macron to “resolve the problem”. In the aftermath of that pledge, however, no progress had been made.
On Saturday, after Hariri’s latest visit to the Élysée Palace, the French presidency said it was “closely monitoring” the issue of indemnifying the French employees concerned and that the Saudis “had committed to paying the rest of the indemnities” that had not yet been paid.
The Saudi Oger group is at the core of the Hariri family fortune. Saad Hariri took the helm of what was then a flourishing business in 1994. Founded in 1978 by Hariri’s father Rafik, the billionaire former prime minister of Lebanon who was assassinated in Beirut in 2005, the firm benefitted in particular from excellent relations with the Saudi monarchy.
Falling oil prices and the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, however, changed everything. Orders faded and the Saudi state froze large contracts, including those of Saudi Oger.
The group quickly fell heavily into debt and saw its credit run dry. The company has since been unable to pay its 50,000 employees, staff comprised of nationals from 30 countries.
Aside from the money the ex-workers are demanding, French radio and television channel France Info revealed on Saturday the extent of debt the group contracted with French social welfare institutions. More than 5 million euros are reportedly in play in that respect.
France Info catalogued the sums owed in detail: 1,196,000 euros to the Fund for French Citizens Abroad (CFE), 962,000 euros to Axa for health insurance contributions, 2,147,000 euros to Pro BTP, which handles the affected employees’ private pension plan, and finally 720,000 euros to Pôle emploi, France’s agency for jobseekers.