JEDDAH, 11 June — The operations and maintenance company which runs the Prince Abdullah Hospital in Bisha has dismissed four female employees from service because they are pregnant.
Ali Al-Zahrani, executive director for operations at the Medical and Scientific Equipment Company, said conceiving during the contract period was a violation of the agreement they had signed with the company. The employees will soon be deported, he added.
Al-Zahrani warned that other contract workers who fail to fulfill their contractual obligations will face the same fate.
However, the clause on pregnancy in the contract is only applicable to employees who conceive during their vacations and not to employees who live with their husbands in the Kingdom, Zahrani explained.
“The company doesn’t want the work at the hospital affected. The action was taken after several female staff members said they were unable to work because they were pregnant,” he said. The company reminded the female workers before they went on annual leave about the pregnancy clause in their contracts.
A source at the Labor Department said Article 164 of the Labor Law stipulates that a working woman is eligible for four weeks’ maternity leave before delivery and six weeks afterward. Women who have completed three years’ service are entitled to full salary during maternity leave and those with one year’s service will be paid half their salaries.
Article 168 of the Labor Law bans the sacking of breast-feeding mothers from service.
A hospital official pointed out that a woman giving birth in the Kingdom while her husband is away in another country is against regulations. In such a situation, it would be impossible for her to obtain a birth certificate for her baby after completing official formalities, he said.
