Are PAC’s employees paying the price of Prince Bin Talal’s bad investment?

397 employees have not been paid their March salaries by PAC which is owned by al-Walid Bin Talal.

Apparently, there is no near solution in sight for this problem, placing intolerable burden on the shoulders of employees and their families.      

The PAC employees are expecting those who abstained from paying them to budge from their move or else taking judiciary actions will become legitimate.   

In this context, Lawyer Paul Marcos explained to LBCI that the salary is what prompts the employee or worker to carry on in his professional journey and any salary suspension tightens the screws on employees. The Lawyer added that the employer has no right, under any guise, to suspend salaries.   

 Marcos added that, in that case, the employee has the right to resort to the ministry of labor or the Arbitral Labor Council, explaining that any delay of payment reveals an intention to dismiss employees under the pretext of unavailability of funds. The lawyer pointed out that the presented excuses should be investigated.        

The issue of suspension of payments has emerged in the wake of a letter addressed by PAC on March 21 to the ministry of Labor in which it called for holding consultative sessions to discuss the dismissal of 397 employees for “economic reasons” in an attempt to evade paying their compensation. On March 26, during the first consultative session, PAC’s lawyers submitted financial reports, claiming that the company had sustained financial loss.      

The second session was scheduled on April 4, a day after a warning was sent by the ministry of labor to PAC, calling on the company to pay the due salaries to the employees. However, the company did not abide by the warning and its lawyers boycotted the second consultative session without producing any excuses.   

Labor Minister Salim Jraisati told LBCI that “what happened is dangerous”, stressing that the consultative sessions between PAC and the ministry are binding and failure to do so may be considered by the ministry as unfair dismissal.     
Jraisati confirmed that no compromise will be made while dealing with the issue.    

The suspension of payments might constitute an attempt by the PAC’s administration to exert pressure and reveal to the ministry of labor its poor financial status in order to evade paying compensations for those it is intending to dismiss. However, the company’s economic situation is being examined and those who made a bad investment cannot dismiss their employees without compensation.