Retailer Carrefour reviewing work practices at Saudi partner after Amnesty raises concerns

French supermarket retailer Carrefour said on Monday it is reviewing how staff are treated at Majid Al Futtaim (MAF), its Saudi Arabia franchise partner, after Amnesty International raised concerns over employees' working conditions.

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.

Amnesty said its findings were based on interviews and information provided by 17 men from Nepal, India and Pakistan.

They worked in Carrefour sites in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah between 2021 and 2024, and nearly all are or were employed by labour supply companies and contracted out to Majid Al Futtaim.

"Following Amnesty's alert, we immediately asked our partner MAF to conduct internal investigations among its employees and subcontractors in Saudi Arabia," Carrefour said in a statement.

"In order to prevent potential human rights non-compliance situations within our franchise partner's direct and indirect operations, we decided to extend our investigations to a wider scope of activities, covering all human rights requirements. To this end, an independent expert has been appointed," it added.

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.

"Any form of labour abuse or exploitation is unacceptable, and allegations of this nature are comprehensively investigated by the relevant authorities," a spokesperson for the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development said in a statement.

Carrefour said that it had discussions with Amnesty earlier this year on labour conditions in Saudi Arabia and that it had asked MAF to investigate.

"These preliminary investigations did not confirm the elements signalled by Amnesty's alert but did reveal other problems: housing, training and accounting of work hours for which corrective actions were taken," Carrefour told news agency AFP on Friday.

It added that it had appointed an outside expert to review the human rights situation and the assessment methodology was being determined.

Dubai-based MAF manages nearly 500 Carrefour stores in 30 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, with Saudi Arabia its second largest market behind the United Arab Emirates.

The company earned a net profit of around $735 million last year on revenues of $9.4 billion.

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.