Adnan Al-Shabrawi Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The Ministry of Labor has pushed back the completion date of labor courts from 2016 to 2017. Ministry of Labor spokesman Tayseer Al-Mufrij said the project had been postponed because the legal labor committees and commissions for the court are not fully formed yet. All members of the Labor Court committees are certified by the Ministry of Justice to be law practitioners. He said the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Labor are currently holding workshops to train and educate future committee members on judicial labor law in the Kingdom. “The ministry had already graduated its first batch from the training programs. The second batch will start its training in the coming days. The ministry plans to open its first labor courts in Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and Dammam,” said Al-Mufrij. He added another reason for postponing the completion of the project is to find suitable locations for the courts. Labor courts will be responsible for receiving labor contracts disputes, labor rights cases, salary discrepancies cases, work injuries and compensation, disciplinary penalties and appeals, employers and employees' complaints and others. “The Labor Court will be established to lessen the pressure on other legal courts and the ombudsman. Currently, all commercial and labor legal issues are being forwarded to the public court,” said Al-Mufrij. He added labor courts will be under the Ministry of Justice but will be run by the Ministry of Labor.
