Lawyer ordered to pay BD1,300 fine

A Bahraini lawyer was ordered by the Labour Court to pay over BD1,300 to a female Bahraini lawyer for arbitrarily sacking her from work. The incident occurred when the female Bahraini lawyer was working at his office as a trainee for a monthly salary of BD400. The woman claimed that her work contract was terminated by the defendant without providing a sensible reason or notice. She worked there from March 31, 2016, to July 26, 2017.

The court ordered the defendant to pay the woman BD346 and interest at a rate of 6 per cent per annum, as well as late payments for 6 months. The court also ordered to pay a BD400 allowance for not providing a termination notice, BD188 annual leave allowance and BD426 in compensation for dismissal. He was also ordered to provide the plaintiff with an end of service certificate for the period from March 2016 to August 2018.

The defendant meanwhile initiated another case against the woman, demanding her to pay over BD50,000 for violating professional ethics, as he accused her and two of her colleagues of contacting a client of his company without prior approval. The man provided the court with an auditor’s report proving that an amount of BD51,250 was deposited by the client into the accounts of the three employees and not to the company’s bank account.

However, the court rejected the man’s claims for lack of evidence, irrelativeness and not being a cause to immediately terminate her work contract, but to only take a disciplinary procedure against her as per the law.