JEDDAH: The Ministry of Labor has warned that it would fine firms heavily for arbitrarily firing Saudi employees using a loophole in newly passed legislation.

This comes in the wake of a firm firing 34 Saudi engineers recently using Article 77 of the new legislation, which stipulates that firms can fire employees as long as they pay them out 15 days’ salary for every year of service, according to a report in a local publication.

Shoura Council member Saeed Al-Sheikh has called on the ministry to re-visit the new regulations, which “favors the employer.” He said workers are the weaker party in the contractual relationship under these circumstances.

Ministry spokesman Khaled Aba Al-Kheil said that firms cannot fire Saudi employees arbitrarily from companies. Penalties include the ministry cutting all services to violating firms, said Al-Kheil. He urged aggrieved employees to submit complaints to local labor committees at these firms, which have legal standing.

The ministry also regularly sends inspection committees to verify dismissals, especially of Saudi nationals. This particular clause of the law, and others which are ambiguous, would be “subject to further study and modification if proven in practice to be faulty.” The minister is empowered to propose amendments to any law, he said.

The 34 Saudi engineers had reportedly all received “end of service” letters from their employees in various cities across the Kingdom one week after the new labor law came into force.

The engineers claimed they were surprised to receive the letters from their company. However, they reportedly said that the decision of their company was “sound” because it was based on approved labor legislation.

They said no foreign workers were fired and that this was not the first time the company had dismissed citizens. Three hundred Saudi engineers were “dismissed during the training period.”