JEDDAH — A judge has given a major telecommunications company five days to return three days' worth of pay it had deducted from one of its employees for unauthorized absence, Al-Hayat daily reported.
Should the company fail to pay back the SR950 before the court's deadline, it will face several penalties, including a travel ban on the owner of the business and suspension of major services from all government departments. The judge said the company would be fined SR10,000 for each day past the deadline it fails to pay the money back.
The judge's verdict came after the company refused to implement a decision from a Ministry of Labor committee that ordered the business to reimburse the salary deduction.
In his case against the company, the employee provided documentary evidence proving that he reported to work for the three days the company said he was absent.
However, the company did not take this evidence into consideration and decided to go ahead with the deduction.
The laws that are relevant in this case stipulate that if the concerned party, in this case the business owner, fails to comply with the decision on time, he or she could face a prison sentence of up to seven years.
