Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The Court of Appeal in southern Saudi Arabia issued a verdict to give compensation amounting to SR180,000 to an expatriate employer, who was terminated without a valid reason and reported absconding in order to deprive him of his salary dues and end-of-service benefits.

The employee approached the Court of Appeal after the First Instance Court rejected his lawsuit earlier. The Court of Appeal found that the employer sacked the employee without any valid reason and then submitted a malicious report to the Labor Office that he was absconding with the intent of harming him and depriving him of his salary dues and allowances. The court ordered to pay compensation for the damage incurred by the employee and that include his expenses, the expenses of his family, and the house rent during the period after termination, in addition to the lawyer’s fee.

Okaz/Saudi Gazette has learned from sources that the compensation ruling came after a similar ruling was issued by an administrative appeals court that obligated the employer to pay all salary dues to the plaintiff for the remainder of the contract period for sacking him without a legitimate reason.

Earlier, the employee approached the First Instance Court, seeking SR1 million in compensation for the harm caused to him due to the termination from his job eight months before the expiry of his contract period, and reporting him running away from work so as to deprive him of his salary dues and allowances.

The court issued its ruling dismissing the lawsuit and subsequently he approached the Administrative Court of Appeal. In his lawsuit, the employee pleaded that he was sacked in violation of Article 77 of the Labor Law, eight months before the expiry of the labor contract and that the employer not only refused to transfer his service but also reported absconding with the intent of depriving him of salary dues and allowances. The Administrative Court of Appeal found that the report submitted by the employer at the Labor Office was a malicious one against the employee and hence it revoked the report of absconding.

In his petition with the Court of Appeal, the plaintiff stated that ever since the date of filing the malicious absence report by the employer, he remained unemployed and was unable to either transfer sponsorship or renew his residency permit (iqama) for a period of 22 months. He noted that this caused material, moral and psychological damage to him and his family. He especially pointed out the inability of his daughter, who was studying outside the Kingdom, to reenter the Kingdom due to the expiry of iqama.