My bad experience with an Overseas Recruitment Agency

Dear Friends,

 

My name is Bency Mohan. G. I am a professional QA/QC (Civil) Engineer residing at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. I got 11 years professional experience including 7 years experience in middle east countries.

 I want to share my bad experiences with a fake overseas recruitment agency, so that you will get informed and will not fall prey to such cheaters. 

The name of the recruitment agency is RT Informatic Services Pvt Ltd, Hydrabad which cheated me for an employment in a company at Saudi Arabia by giving a bunch of lies, for taking Rs. 50,000/- as service change from me and giving me a visit visa instead of work visa. The details are given below.

It was in the month of June and I was at India after completion of my work contract with a company in Qatar and was searching for another overseas job opportunity.

On the last week of June 2012, I received a call from a lady, who introduced herself as Mrs. Regina. M, Chief Coordinating Officer of RTInformatic Services Pvt Ltd, Hydrabad. 

She told me that she find my resume from a job website at internet and my profile matches with the requirements of their client, a company working under Saudi Aramco.

She told me that the job was for QA Manager and the salary offered was Saudi Riyals 15,000/month (Basic 14,000 + Food allowance 1000). She told me that the employer was impressed by my resume and there will not be any interview. She also told me that I need to Pay Rs. 50,000 as service charge to her company, for this job. She told me the name of the Employer as "Nassir Bin Hazza & Bros Company" and said that the company is a very reputed, highly  professional company in the kingdom.

Although I was not much interested to work in Saudi Arabia, I agreed to her offer Since the salary is very good (nearly Rs. 1,80,000/month).

As per her instruction, I send her my passport and B.Tech certificates on 3rd July 2012.

On 4th July 2012, she send me an email, saying that my visa is ready and asking me to deposit the amount of Rs.50,000 on the account of her company. When I asked her about the contract agreement letter from the company, she told me that it is already prepared, but since the Managing director of the company is on a foreign trip, it will be send to me only after his return. The mail also assured that the offer awarded to me is as: Basic : 14000 SR + Food Allowance : 1000 SR.

I transferred the money from my account at Central bank of India to the following bank account, as per this email.

Name of the Account : RTInformatic Services Pvt. Ltd.

Account #                      : 008010200064381

Current Account         : Axisbank Ltd.

Branch                           : Hyderabad

After one week I received the offer letter from the agency. I was shocked since the offer letter shows that my job is "QA inspector" and my salary is SR. 8500 (Basic 8000 + food 500) and an additional clause was there showing that  if I will be approved for "QA Manager"(Quality Assurance Manager) in future, they will give me SAR. 14,000 (Basic 13,000 + food 1000). I was totally upset with this and send a email to the agency,  on 10 July  2012, asking them for an explanation.

The agency told me that the QA inspector post is only a temporary arrangement, for getting approval from Saudi Aramco. They told me that within 3 months, my job will be upgraded to QA Manager and I will get SAR. 14,000/month. They told me that the SAR. 8500 salary is for 8 hours work and I will get overtime for working more than that. As per site conditions daily minimum 10 hours’ work will be there, which means I will get 2 hours overtime per day. So I will get more than a total of SAR.10,000/month even for that first 3 months. They told me in such a convincing fashion, so that I trusted their words.

So I signed the offer letter and send to them. I started waiting for the arrival of my visa and air ticket.  I got lot of good offers from other companies (including SAMSUNG Saudi Arabia company which offered US$ 3500/month as salary) during this period. But since my passport and all documents were with the agency I was not able to accept any of these offers. I send lot of emails to the agency and made lot of calls, asking for the visa and ticket. But every time, the agency made some excuses and it was delayed for more than 2 months.

 At last on 9th September 2012 they send me the passport and Air Ticket for my travel at 11th September 2012 .But the visa stamped was visit visa. The agency told me that the company need one more month for processing my work visa; but since their requirement for QA Inspector is urgent for the project, they send me visit visa. The agency assured me that within 3 months, the company will change my visit visa to work visa and profession to QA Manager. The long wait for the visa had already made my financial situation very bad and trusting the agency's words I decided to go.

I reached Saudi Arabia, at Dammam Airport on 11th September night. But there was nobody to receive me at the airport. A driver from the company came to pick me up in the morning, after my 8 hours waiting at the Airport. He took me to the main office of the company at Al Khobar. On the way I enquired him about the company and he explained to me that the company is in a bad financial situation. He told me that salaries of employees at head office are pending for the last 3 months.

Later I was send to the work site at Jeddah, to a project called Saudi Aramco "Kaust Thuwal Flood Control Project" . My passport was submitted to the head office for visit visa renewal and work visa processing.

At the site, the conditions were more difficult. The accommodation and transportation facilities were terrible. I was given a small room along with a driver. There was no proper transportation facility available, which force me to walk  more than 2 km from my site office to reach my accommodation, in most of the days. Also I was given the job of "QC (Quality Control) Inspector" instead of QA (Quality Assurance) Inspector. I was the only one QC Inspector in the site and there were no QA or QC Managers available at the site. A QC Supervisor from a rental company was also there, who did not know any QC work or even proper English. So all the responsibility of the Quality department came to my shoulders.

That project was the first Saudi Aramco project taken by Nassir Bin Hazza & Bros Company. So most of the staff did not got any previous experience with Saudi Aramco. I previously worked with Saudi Aramco for 3 years (from 2003 to 2006) which help me to properly organize my work in the project. I worked hard and single handily brought professionalism to the Quality department which give me good reputation with the  Saudi Aramco officials, my co-workers and subcontractors.

But when I got my first month salary, I was shocked. I worked 10 hours or more per day, but there was no overtime payment in the salary. When I asked the company about this, they told me that my salary is "fixed salary" and there is no provision for overtime. They also told me that they informed about this condition to the recruitment agency in the initial stage of the recruitment process itself. With this explanation, I understood that the recruitment agency just lied to me regarding this.

Also I got information from trusted sources in the company that while recruitment process, the company gave clear instruction to the recruitment agency that they required an experienced QC Inspector for the project and the recruitment agency forwarded my resume for that post. This proved that the recruitment agency cleverly cheated me.

There were other workers also there at that site who were recruited by the same recruitment agency. They also told me similar experiences, about getting wrong promises and lies from the agency.

However, the worse thing was still to come. The visit visa, which was stamped on my passport, got a validity of one month period. It needed to be renewed every month for my extended stay. But the company HR department did not renewed my visit visa and it got expired after one month.

Therefore, as per Saudi Arabian rules I became an illegal emigrant which means I need to pay a penalty of SAR.10,000 and will be exported to India with a life ban from entering GCC countries. This will practically terminate my career in Middle East.

When I understood this fact, I became totally upset. I asked for the help for the company management and informed the recruitment agency regarding this. The company management told me that they would solve this issue. However, the recruitment agent did not show even the courtesy to give me any reply.

I worked in that project, with the hope that the company will solve the problem. That time Saudi Government declared strict observation of "Nithaqat" (Nationalization) rules in the country. Police and emigration officials started checking each site and streets and many days I force to hide from them, fearing arrest for not having a legal visa document.

But even after all these happenings, I never showed any negligence in my work and worked hard for the company, without taking a single day leave.

Luck was with me. On May 2013, the Saudi King declared relaxation of Nithaqat rules and gave one-month period for illegal workers to leave the country without penalty or ban. I asked the company to prepare my papers for exit from Saudi Arabia, utilizing the relaxation period. But again the company HR was on a "snail's pace" and I was afraid that I will miss the chance to escape from getting punishment. So I contacted Indian embassy at Jeddah. They contacted the company management and due to their involvement, the company finally send me back home on 12th June 2013. This ended my 9 months work with Nassir Bin Hazza & Bros Company.

Before this employment, I worked 6 years in Middle East countries. Every time I got job through some recruitment agencies. But nobody cheated me like this recruitment agency. They took Rs.50,000 from me through a bunch of lies and cunning tricks and put me in a very bad situation.  I was lucky to escape without ending up in jail or getting a life ban.

After reaching India, I contacted this agency and asked for their explanation for all these things. But they replied to me in a very rude manner and when i told them that I am going to complain against them to concerned Authorities, they told me that "they don't care", what so ever I do.

After that I personally checked the website of external ministry and find that the agency (RTInformatic Services Pvt Ltd, Hydrabad) is not an approved recruitment agency. So that shows that,  this is a fake agency and all this is part of their game.

The address of this fake recruitment agency is given below

RT Informatic Services Pvt. Ltd.

# 3-6-343 & 344, Level II, Ruby Plaza

BasheerBagh, Hyderabad -500 029

Phone:+91-40-2322 2218

URL: www.redtechsoft.com

  I filed a complaint against this agency in the Overseas affairs department in Kerala.  By that time I got another good job offer from another company and I left India. So I was not able to follow up the complaint up to now. I did not know whether they took any take action against this recruitment agency, on the basis of my complaint.

I am writing all these personal experiences in here so that people will be aware of their tricks and they will not be able to cheat any more people like me.

Moral of the Story

1) Whenever a recruitment agency calls you with any job offer, first check the website of Overseas affairs ministry, to know whether that agency is approved by the ministry. If not approved, say "no" to the agency and report this incident to the concerned authorities.

(You can check it in this website   http://moia.gov.in/services.aspx?ID1=123&id=m9&idp=120&mainid=73)

2) Never gave your passport/original certificates or pay any service charge to any agency, until they give you an offer letter, signed by the concerned company. Also never pay a service charge more that Rs. 20,000/- (which is approved fee by the ministry.)

3) Make sure that the offer letter contains all clauses regarding your job designation & details, facilities available, working hours, overtime payment, vacation etc. If some clauses are missing, never sign it, until such clauses are included.

4) If possible check the present status of the company, with help of your NRI friends and Government Authorities.

5) Never accept any other visa, other than Work Visa. Also check the profession shown in the visa and validity. If it is not your correct profession, never accept it.

6) If you are going to Saudi Arabia, make sure that the company which is giving you the job offer, is in "Green" category, as per Nithaqat rules. If it is "yellow" or "red", never accept the job offer.

Eventhough I was an experienced NRI, the recruitment agency was able to trap me with their sweet talks and tricks. So how easily they can cheat a fresh person, who is going to accept his first overseas job offer? Just think about it and be careful....

Please share this informations with your relatives and friends....

Thank you,

Bency Mohan. G