News

In the following article Yasin
Chowdhury discusses Articles 40 and 41 of the Labour Law, with Times of Oman,
which cover termination.

“The offences attract the provisions
of Article 40 when the termination is by the employer, whereas Article 41
relates to lawful resignation by the employees after they have served a prior
notice,” Chowdhury said.

Explaining further, Chowdhury said the
employee attracts the provisions of Article 40 even though the offence
committed by him is a first-time offence, “There is no notice required and it
doesn’t matter whether the offence committed by him is for the first time or a
repeat offence; the employer can go ahead and terminate the employee under this
article without any warning,” he added.

Some grounds which fall under Article
40 include false identification, forging documents or certificates,
non-disclosure of essential information, being absent without notice, gross
misconduct, etc.

“It is to be understood that Labour
Law in the Sultanate is pro employee; it is mostly in favour of the employees.
This can be seen in practice in the courts of law where the rights of the
employees are shielded.

 “Having said that, there are nine scenarios
which allow the employer to take action under article 40, including filing of
false identity, or when the employee being hired or in the process of being
hired, forges his/ her certificates to fit the position he applies for.

“Secondly, if the employee commits
assault, he is liable to termination of the contract. Of all the nine grounds
mentioned under Article 40, the most important is gross misconduct; the court
can consider the inclusion of so many things under the provision of gross
misconduct,” Chowdhury said.

He said there has been a case where
the Appeals Court considered the tearing of official documents by the employee
in front of his line manager as gross misconduct; he was supposed to do a
particular job, but he refused to do the job. He was terminated under Article
40.

“The remaining grounds mentioned under
Article 40 are very specific. For example, coming to work drunk, not complying
with the safety procedures at the workplace, disclosing any secrets related
with the establishment in which he/ she works, being absent from work for more
than seven consecutive days without reasonable cause and so on,” he added.

The expert further said that
“generally, depending on the grounds of termination and the article which the
employer wishes to invoke for the termination, an employee should be given a
fair notice mentioning the reason why the employer is taking the termination
decision.

“In such cases, the employee should be
given a fair chance to reply, if he/ she wants to make any representation or if
he/she wants to respond to the allegations made by the employer,” Chowdhury
said.

Read the original article here: Times of Oman.