Manama: A Saudi school courier is to receive 200,000 riyals (Dh195,815) from the education ministry after he was forced to clean classrooms and bathrooms for 11 years.
The administrative court in Hael in northern Saudi Arabia said that the cleaning tasks were not part of the man’s duties and he deserved to receive financial compensation of 100 riyals for every day he cleaned the school’s facilities.
The courier had been asked verbally by a school administrator to tidy up the classrooms and bathrooms in addition to his duties and he complied for 11 years before deciding to take the matter to court, local daily Makkah reported.
The defence team for the ministry rejected the courier’s claim, saying there was no evidence to support it.
However, the courier brought two teachers who testified that he had been asked orally to do the extra tasks and that the school principal had promised to give him 5,000 riyals as a bonus. However, the courier did not receive anything, the court heard.
The judge said that the courier had been unduly asked to perform the extra tasks and that he deserved compensation.
However, the education ministry is now challenging the court decision, arguing that it was not responsible for a mistake by the school’s principal and for the courier being unaware about what tasks he had been hired for.
The ministry said that it would be forced to pay large amounts of money for mistakes that it had not made.
