Health Centre Boss Dismissed Over Absenteeism In Saudi Arabia

The director of a health centre in Saudi Arabia has been sacked after a video highlighting repeated absenteeism went viral on social media.

The video taken by a patient shows the office of the director — as well as many other offices — empty, while elderly Saudi nationals wait in the main hall.

A man working in the pharmacy refuses to answer a question about the whereabouts of the employees and demands that no picture or video be taken.

However, the disgruntled Saudi patient continues to film the eerily silent centre.

In the video, one man patiently waiting in the hall says the employees left their offices at around noon and failed to return. He goes on to say he had been waiting for around two hours.

The health affairs directorate in Hafr Al Batin, 430 kilometres north of the capital Riyadh said, following the posting of the absenteeism video on the internet, an ad hoc committee was formed to look into the issue and hear from all concerned parties.

The committee concluded that the director of the health centre should be dismissed and other officers punished, Saudi news site Al Marsad reported on Monday.

“All employees in the health sector should abide by the ethics of the profession and comply with the required working hours,” the committee said.

“There will be a zero-tolerance towards anyone who fails to rise to the level of his responsibilities towards patients.”

Several Saudis welcomed the decision and pointed out to the importance of monitoring state employees more closely to ensure the levels of absenteeism are seriously reduced.

Absenteeism has been one of the most formidable challenges facing the public sector and schools in Gulf countries, often prompting official action.

In December, the newly-appointed mayor of Madinah in western Saudi Arabia imposed a fingerprint authentication system to track the physical presence of government employees on the premises five times a day during the working hours.

Under the new policy, the more than 2,000 employees needed to prove their attendance throughout the seven working hours by using the fingerprint reader when they arrive, then at 9.30am, at 10.30am, at 11.45am and upon leaving.

If an employee does not use the reader on the three designated times between his arrival and departure, he will be considered absent for three hours and his salary will be deducted accordingly, and if he does not sign in or sign off, he will be considered absent the full day.

The new attendance tracking scheme was introduced after a study he had commissioned concluded that productivity was low and that the major reason was the absence of employees.

The study said several employees signed in, but instead of staying at the workplace, they snuck out and left the offices empty.

It also found that several transactions and paperwork requested by Saudi citizens were left pending for months and even years.

source : gulfnews