"SR180,000 compensation for expat worker for illegal termination and report of absconding", 13 Nov 2022

The Court of Appeal in southern Saudi Arabia issued a verdict to give compensation amounting to SR180,000 to an expatriate employe[e] who was terminated without a valid reason and [was] reported [by the company as having] abscond[ed] 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... The court ordered [the employer] to pay compensation for the damage incurred by the employee... that include[s] his expenses, the expenses of his family, and the house rent during the period after termination, in addition to the lawyer’s fee.

...[T]he 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...

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...

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...