JEDDAH, 5 March 2006 — The lawsuit that Jeddah medical interns filed against King Abdul Aziz University in February and was scheduled for a hearing on Feb. 25 has been postponed until further notice.
Their lawsuit was filed against the dean of KAAU, Osama Taib, who prematurely applied a 44-percent deduction in their pay. The deduction was implemented last year, months before it was scheduled to take effect. While KAAU interns received the pay cut, interns at other hospitals in the Kingdom enjoyed their previous pay scale until the cut was implemented this year.
For the past six months the interns in Jeddah have been receiving SR6,000 instead of SR10,700.
The large number of students who attended the court seeking justice returned home with no hope. The response they found was that, because they are not employees, their case would be transferred to another court. According to the students who attended, the time and place of their next meeting was not determined yet. The court said that the students would be notified when their hearing has been re-scheduled.
