Batelco Staff Sacking Ruled Illegal

Bahrain's Court of Arbitration has ruled that Batelco's dismissal of 44 employees last year was illegal and should not be repeated. The telco had dismissed the staff as part of an employee re-deployment package.

The court was ruling on an appeal by Batelco following a ruling last year which required the firm to reinstate the employees. Since then, the company has taken back ten of the affected staff, and settled the dispute with 34 other former staff who had accepted a financial settlement.

Batelco Trade Union chairman Syed Hadi Al Mousawi said "This does not affect 34 former employees or the 10 who are still there, but what it does mean is that these 10 employees can now demand their old jobs with the same salaries,"

The union was satisfied though that the court had confirmed that the firms actions were illegal.

Batelco said that the matter was closed as far as it was concerned.

Posted to the site on 19th January 2009