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The labour ministry forced a company this week to pay its workers all their late wages before they returned to work. Ahmad Barakat, deputy director of the labour relations department, refused to allow Fabtech employees to return to work until their employer had paid them all their late wages. Initially, their employer had refused to pay them one-month's wages because he claimed they had stopped work that month. They had stopped work, but only to protest late payment of salaries. The company's representatives said workers did not deserve to be paid for that month because they did not work the whole month. Barakat, however, said the workers were entitled to receive their wages for the month because they had stopped work only because the company had not paid them their wages and they had filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. According to labour laws, a worker is ruled to have been arbitrarily dismissed if he is fired only for submitting a complaint to the authorities. Before the filing, Fabtech had allowed the workers to return to work only after they agreed to receive some — not all — of the four months of back wages. The ones who demanded all their wages were not allowed back into the company. Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi, the labour minister, ordered all the workers to return to work and to receive all the wages owed to them.
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