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With Covid-19, many companies around the world are taking extra precautions to take care of their workers.

This includes providing work-from-home options or replenishing supplies of face masks and hand sanitiser in the office.

However, one company in Saudi Arabia may have taken it too far.

Human sanitiser dispenser

On Mar. 10, this photo was posted on Twitter and it went viral subsequently:

طبقية خليجية
اهداء من أرامكو pic.twitter.com/FpWsUNw7mE

— هشام فقيه (@HishamFageeh) March 10, 2020

The worker was photographed wearing a sandwich board with the words "Hand sanitiser" on it.

It was affixed with a functioning dispenser which apparently dispensed hand sanitiser.

This happened in the office of Saudi Aramco, an oil company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Angry netizens

With over 4,000 retweets and 8,000 likes, this image has caused much anger among many people.

Why are they treating a human being like this? This is not cool https://t.co/7l4v17zajc

— R (@hafeezpen) March 11, 2020

This is just wrong yaaar. Cheap labour doesn't meant u make them do such :/ https://t.co/rkJB56AJVa

— Munna (@dakuwithchaku) March 11, 2020

https://twitter.com/Chaima_Elle/status/1237506031472668672

Some even called it an act of "classism" and "racism".

https://twitter.com/ruqaiya_h/status/1237424846499385345

Wanted to show importance of hand sanitation

Following the fallout, Saudi Aramco responded via Twitter on Mar. 11.

According to its tweets, the company recognised that the act was "abusive" and said that it simply wanted to emphasise the importance of hand sanitation.

إشارة إلى الصور المتداولة في وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي لأحد الزملاء مرتدياً ما يشبه عبوة للتعقيم في أحد مرافقها، تود #أرامكو السعودية أن تعرب عن استيائها الشديد من هذا التصرف المسيء الذي أريد به التأكيد على أهمية التعقيم، دون أخذ موافقة من الجهة المعنية بالشركة.

— أرامكو (@saudi_aramco) March 10, 2020

Here's a rough translation:

"In response to the viral photos of a colleague wearing a sterilisation in one of our facilities, Saudi Aramco would like to express our strong dissatisfaction with such abusive behaviour. We wanted to emphasise the importance of hand sanitation."

In another tweet, Saudi Aramco said that it has also stopped this rather peculiar way of dispensing hand sanitiser.

وقد قامت الشركة على الفور بإيقاف هذا الفعل واتخاذ إجراءات صارمة تحول دون تكراره.
وتؤكّد الشركة حزمها ضد المساس بقيمها المبنية على الاحترام والتمسك بأخلاقيات السلوك والتعامل.

— أرامكو (@saudi_aramco) March 10, 2020

Translation:

"With immediate effect, the company has stopped this act and has taken drastic measures to prevent it from happening again. The company would like to strongly emphasise that this is doesn't adhere to our values, ethics and conduct.

Top image from @hishamfageeh on Twitter.