By Adnan Shabrawi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The Labor Court in Riyadh ordered a private company to compensate a dismissed employee with SR1 million, in addition to his unpaid salaries and end-of-service benefits.

The company had dismissed the Saudi employee just four months after he was appointed on a three-year contract.

The court said the company, which was not identified, had fired the employee arbitrarily before the expiration of his contract.

The representative of the company did not attend the court hearing though he was electronically informed about the dates.

The court said it had passed the verdict to the Court of Appeals in Riyadh for scrutiny and final approval.

In an earlier ruling, the court instructed the owner of a medical center to pay the unpaid monthly salaries to a nurse who was contracted a year ago.

The defendant failed to pay the nurse's salaries for several months and did not honor the contract terms. The nurse then decided to file a case at the court after several failed attempts to resolve the issue directly with the female owner of the medical center.

The court issued the ruling after several hearings and after the defendant failed to make a court appearance despite several notifications sent to her.

Justice Minister Waleed Al-Samaani, who is the chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, last month opened three labor courts in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. He will open a fourth one in Makkah within a month.

Exclusive labor courts were launched in order to help organize and support the workforce in the country. "Rulings like this one show to everyone the role these newly launched courts are going to play,” the Justice Ministry said in a press statement. "Although we are still at the beginning but we can see great potential in these courts and how they can help the labor market in Saudi Arabia," it added.

According to the latest statistics, there are over 13.8 million employees across the Kingdom working in various industries. Labor courts will be attending to issues and disputes related to this workforce.