The Labor Office in Jeddah has rejected the documents presented by a foreign mining company to justify its sacking of a Saudi national from his job. Sameer Khaiyat, the Saudi citizen, claims that the company owes him SR100,000 in unpaid dues. He is also seeking SR5 million for mental and physical damages caused by his alleged “arbitrary sacking that came without warning”. Khaiyat also accuses the company, which is licensed to carry out mineral exploration in the Kingdom, of not paying him an allowance paid to all employees in 2009. The Labor Office held a new session Saturday to look into the lawsuit. Khaiyat, who worked at the company as a public relations director, said that his repeated requests resulted in a contract that was signed a year after he joined the company. The contract stipulated a salary of SR35,000, with SR3,000 as a transportation allowance and 25 percent of the basic salary as accommodation allowance. The contract ends in June 2012, the man said, but the company arbitrarily ended his services early. Khaiyat has also filed complaints with the Minister of Labor and Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in which he said the company had informed him that he was being sacked with payment of SR200,000 for his efforts. “But I only received SR100,000 and was told I would receive the rest in June 2012 without any convincing explanation,” Khaiyat said. A representative of the company submitted a reply memorandum without an official cover letter addressed to the Labor Office due to which the Labor Office rejected the memorandum. The committee granted the company another chance to reply and present its official documents. __
