Saudi company ordered to pay $1mln in compensation to employees

The Executive Court in Jeddah has obliged a private foodstuffs company to pay a sum of SR4.04 million in compensations to 54 employees whom it had unfairly dismissed.

The employees, including 14 Saudi men and women, have filed complaints against the unidentified company in the court.

According to court sources, the Saudis were compensated by SR1.02 million while the expatriate employees were paid more than SR3.02 million.

The verdict also obliged the company to give the dismissed employees experience certificates, pay them their end of service emoluments, compensate them for their accumulated leaves, issue final exit visas for the expatriate employees and provide them with air tickets to travel to their respective home countries.

According to the Justice Ministry, the executive courts in the Kingdom, last year received as many as 639 complaints for compensations to the tune of SR797 million for the termination of work contracts.

Makkah, with 172 compensation requests for the payment of SR143 million, topped other regions in the number of complaints while the Eastern Province, with 101 complaints, came first in the amount of money sought in compensations, which was SR464 million.

Riyadh had 161 complaints seeking a total amount of SR167 million, Madinah had 40 complaints for SR12 million while there were 40 complaints in Asir requesting compensations worth more than SR5 million.