Claiming the outstanding dues from the Employer
An employment lawsuit was filed by our client against his former Employer a company (the Defendant), our client demanded the payment of his labor entitlements after he had been terminated by the Defendant.
Summary
The Defendant did not pay our client a large part of his labor dues which were the unpaid salaries for 7 months, allowance for unused leave, and end-of-service gratuity that our client was entitled to in accordance with the provisions of the labor law.
This prompted our client to seek our legal assistance to support him to recover his unpaid dues and this case ended up in the court handing down a ruling in favor of our client, ordering the Defendant to pay the full claim to our client.
Details
Our Client worked for the Defendant as according to the contractual obligations, which are stipulated in the employment contract concluded by and between our client and the Defendant.
However, the Defendant breached its obligation towards our Client in terms of not paying his salaries and other entitlements. Our client was entitled to the payment of SAR 87,500 (Eighty Seven Thousand and Five Hundred) as dues from the Defendant, out of which our client admitted the receipt of SAR 20,000 (Twenty Thousand), while the remaining part of the amount, which is estimated at SAR 67,500 (Sixty Seven Thousand and Five Hundred) was not settled by the Defendant.
Our Client was also entitled to SAR 12,500 (Twelve Thousand and Five Hundred) in allowance for the unused leave, as per the labor law. Last of all, our client was entitled to SAR 284,784.72 (Two Hundred Eighty Four Thousand and Seven Hundred Eighty Four Riyals and Seventy two Halalah) in severance pay.
From such a context, the Defendant breached its contractual obligations with our client and failed to pay him the above said amounts, but a trivial part was paid as stated above.
The court issued the Defendant with an e-legal Summons to inform the defendant that we had initiated a legal action against it, in which we demanded the payment of the foregoing amounts in full, which our client was entitled in labour dues.
However, the Defendant did not respond, and its representative failed to appear in the first hearing without an acceptable reason.
We requested the court to direct the Defendant to take an oath to deny our claims, yet the Defendant was considered ‘refrained from giving the oath’ for its failure to show up in the hearings for unjustified reason.
We guided the Court with articles of the relevant law of civil procedure pertinent to the same. We demanded to apply Article No. (58) of the law of civil procedure, which states: “In case of multiple defendants, where some are served in person while the others are not, and all of them or only those not served in person are absent, the court shall, in other than summary cases, postpone consideration of the case to a subsequent hearing and the plaintiff shall serve notice of that hearing to those absent who are not served in person. The decision in the case shall not be deemed in absentia with respect to served defendants.”
We also demanded to apply Article No. (113) of the law of civil procedure, which stipulates:
- A person summoned to court to take oath must appear.
- If the person requested to take oath appears and declines without contesting the admissibility or relevance of the oath to the case, he must take the oath immediately or require that the adverse party take the oath. If he refuses without contesting or fails to appear without excuse, he shall be deemed to have declined.
- If the person requested to take oath appears but contests the admissibility or relevance of the oath to the case, he shall provide reasons therefor. If the court is not satisfied, he shall take oath; otherwise he shall be deemed to have declined.
Meanwhile, as the Defendant breached the labor law, so we demanded to apply Article No. (84) of the labour law, concerning end-of-service- benefits, which states: “ “Upon the end of the work relation, the employer shall pay the worker an end-of-service award of a half-month wage for each of the first five years and a one-month wage for each of the following years. The end-of-service award shall be calculated on the basis of the last wage and the worker shall be entitled to an end-of-service award for the portions of the year in proportion to the time spent on the job.”
We demanded to apply Article No. (111) of the labor law, which states: “A worker shall be entitled to a wage for the accrued days of the leave if he leaves the work without using such leave. This applies to the period of work for which he has not used his leave. He is also entitled to a leave pay for the parts of the year in proportion to the part he spent at work.”
Based on the above, The Labor Circuit No. 11 of the Riyadh Labor Court came up with the following ruling:
The Court Circuit issued a judgment as if in presence of the Defendant, ordering the Defendant to pay our client the entire amounts claimed in a conclusive and irrevocable manner.