The Labor Office is looking into claims of unfair dismissal from 150 persons sacked by a national telecommunications company for “restructuring purposes.” The workers are also demanding that the company respect the terms of their contracts, which remain in force until June 2010. Director of the Jeddah Labor Office Qussay Filali told Okaz that the inquiry was due to begin today (Saturday). “Our priority is to have the employees reinstated in their jobs if their complaint is verified,” Filali said. Okaz reported the director general of the unnamed company for the Western Region as saying that the company had “no connection with the sacking”. “The operating companies are the cause of the termination of the employees,” he said. When contacted by Okaz, the director of the operating company said the employees had not “been terminated as such”, and instead attributed the dismissals to “a new system being put in by the parent company for the companies working with it”. “The action taken against the employees came from the parent company management,” he said. The 150 employees were first notified of the situation when they received letters terminating their employment on the offer of one month's salary. They, however, refused to sign the letters. Some of them were reportedly informed by telephone while on holiday. Several told Okaz that they had been employed at the company for two years and had undergone training before being appointed. Their salaries and work permits were, they said, the responsibility of the parent company. The employees told Okaz that their dismissal contravened labor laws, which stipulate that “an employee must be given 30 days' notice before the end of his contract.”
