JEDDAH, 21 July 2006 — Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, who is also the head of the Kingdom’s Ulema Council, called on office workers to pay attention to their work and stop dealing in stock market shares during their working hours, reported the Al-Madinah newspaper yesterday.
“Workers who are lazy or who sleep during office hours breach the trust they are assigned with,” Sheikh Abdul Aziz said.
He added that it was this sort of dishonesty that led to people’s prayers going unanswered.
“An employee is entrusted with fulfilling his work. Employees should fulfill the tasks they are assigned with and be punctual in coming to and leaving work as instructed by their bosses.
“Coming late and being negligent and lax, failing to pull your weight and not fulfilling the public needs are breaches of trust,” said the grand mufti.
He said workers take their full salaries and therefore should work their full contracted hours regardless of whether their bosses are around or not.
“If SR10 is deducted from their salaries then a worker will protest and demand an explanation. Why don’t employees give a thought to the time they wasted in sleeping at work?” said the Sheikh.
He added, “There is a time and a place for sleeping. Office hours are for working. It is a breach of trust for workers to spend their office hours selling and buying shares through the office Internet.
“Workers generally say they are in a meeting or doing some other important thing while they sit locked inside their offices dealing in shares.”
Sheikh Abdul Aziz added that it was the duty of superior officers to ensure workers fulfill their duties properly. The grand mufti further stated that taking pay for time spent doing personal things is “haram” (religiously unlawful).
