Director reinstated but barred from office Fired for filing sexual harassment complaint, claims woman employee JEDDAH – An official source said that the Primary Commission for the Settlement of Labor Disputes in Jeddah has issued a decision to reinstate Dr. Muhammad Shawoosh as Executive Director of the Al-Amal Hospital, with full powers. Al-Amal hospital hit the headlines recently after a number of drug addict patients “escaped” from the facility, in the wake of reports of corruption and poor treatment of patients. The source said that a large number of the hospital's workers crowded at the hospital gate Monday after the current administration prevented Dr. Shawoosh from entering the hospital to take up his post. All the doors were closed, so he was forced to leave. Employees of the hospital said that Shawoosh called the Director of Health Affairs to ask why he was prevented from entering the hospital, but could not get through on the phone. So he called the director of his office and complained about what had taken place. He asked the director how a government facility can prevent a citizen from entering it; and whether the facility had now become privately owned? Meanwhile, two female employees, working in the self-operation program of the hospital, tendered their resignations due to “psychological pressures” exerted on them, according to the two women. In another incident, the director of the hospital fired the female head of an administrative department at the hospital after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against one of the leading administrators. The administrator accused of the sexual harassment has refused to comment on the incident. “My function is to answer queries on employment procedures only.” The dismissed female head of department, whose name is withheld, claimed that the man, an administrative director with technical and managerial responsibilities, harassed her with “shameful expressions.” This had happened before a committee that was looking into a complaint filed against her by one of the female employees, on matters related to her work. She claimed that the alleged sexual comments were made in the presence of two of the committee members, who both have personal relations with the administrative director. She said she filed an official complaint to Dr. Osama Ibrahim, Director of the Al-Amal Hospital in Jeddah, who allegedly did not take any administrative measures against the alleged perpetrator. This forced her to file an official complaint to the Director of Health Affairs in Jeddah demanding action. “I'm in the process of referring a complaint to the judicial authorities after writing to Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeah, the Minister of Health about the complaint … but the case ended in the drawers of the Health Affairs [department].” She accused the administrative director of exploiting other female employees and instigating them to rebel against the labor regulations at the hospital. She asked how a leading administrator at the hospital could utter such inappropriate words before a committee investigating work
