RIYADH, 20 May — The Labor Office in Qassim has appealed to the region’s governor to dismiss an Arab expatriate working as director in a branch of a food manufacturing company. The reason given is that he has allegedly been harassing Saudi employees and failing to implement its directives on Saudization.
The Labor Office, in its letter to the governor, complains that this particular branch of the company has not cooperated with the department in appointing Saudis to positions reserved for them under Saudization rules, such as cashier, security guard and warehouse supervisor.
This is despite the office’s repeated instructions to the company to undertake such recruitment.
The preliminary committee for labor disputes, a subsidiary of the Labor Office in the region, will consider a complaint by a Saudi who was the company’s director that his dismissal was unlawful.
Muhammad Al-Damyan, the lawyer representing the dismissed employee, told Arab News that his client has been working in the (unnamed) company for the past 13 years on the basis of an annual contract, which was renewed automatically. The company terminated him recently, according to the lawyer, without providing a legitimate reason.
His client was harassed in a variety of ways, with the apparent objective of making his life so miserable that he would resign from the company. He was asked, for example, to undertake responsibilities outside his job specification, such as depositing cash and checks in the bank and collecting delayed payments from customers, which contravene employment regulations.
The lawyer is demanding that his client be reinstated in the branch where he was working, being given his full salary from the date of his dismissal, and SR1 million as compensation for the moral and psychological injury caused by the alleged illegal action by the company.
The alleged victim said, in his statement to the Labor Office, that an expatriate caused his dismissal with the motive of occupying that job position himself. The company also attempted to mislead the Commerce Ministry by giving a Saudi name for the expatriate who is now working in that position, he further alleged.
Waleed Ali Al-Khaleefa, director of the company’s branch, countered that the man was dismissed legally, as he was found to be incompetent in carrying out his job.
Hussein Al-Tahawi, public relations officer at the company’s Riyadh center, echoed this by arguing that the dismissed director had failed to carry out his duties properly, including chasing up customers who have defaulted on their payments and organizing the subsequent action that should be taken against them.
