Mr Aamir, a senior executive of a public sector enterprise in Riyadh requested for a staff car to attend a meeting in the Ministry of Education on June 9, 2019 at 11:00am. Transport section allotted him a staff car with Driver Ahmed. Mr Aamir, on reaching the Ministry of Education, asked Ahmed to stay back, as the meeting was not to last long and that he expected to be back by 12:00 noon.

The officer, with whom Mr Aamir had an appointment, was in a meeting with his seniors and got delayed by about an hour and half. The meeting with Mr Aamir actually started at 12:30 pm and went up to 1:45 pm. The driver had no information about this. When Mr Aamir came out at 1:45pm, he found that the car was there but the driver was not available. He waited for 15 minutes and the driver did not turn up. As he had a meeting with his CMD at 2:15 pm, he took a taxi and came to office. Later, he submitted a voucher to head of the HR for reimbursement of tai fare and a complaint against Driver Ahmed saying he was absconding from the duty and a strict disciplinary action should be taken against him.

The voucher was passed on to the Finance department and the complaint was sent for further examination to the administration section. Finance department did not approve the bill as the staff car was sanctioned to Mr Aamir and therefore he cannot claim the fare in addition, the administration section examined the complaint and observed that Ahmed is a habitual offender. Instances of such offences during the last one year are described below:

On September 24, 2018, Mr Tom, Senior Manager of the company was required to go to Dubai to take delivery of material, for use by the company by 5:00pm when the goods head closes shop. Incidentally, 24 Sep was the last for receiving the goods from the head. Sep 25 and 26 were holidays. The transport section has assigned driver Ahmed to drive Mr Tom in a staff car for the purpose. Driver Ahmed, who was to return back at 3:00pm to the office after dropping Mr Tom to the airport, actually appeared at 6:00pm without any valid explanation. Ahmed was cautioned in writing against this misconduct in attending the duty.

In December, DGM of the company residing in Riyadh was to catch a flight for Dammam on official duty at 6:30am from King Khalid Airport. Ahmed was asked to report at DGM residence at 4:00am for taking him to the airport. He did not turn up. As a result, DGM had to miss the flight and the important meeting at Dammam. Driver said that he reached office at 3:00am to pick up the staff car but the tyre was flat and there was no Stepney available. Driver Ahmed did not bother to inform DGM regarding the same. He had committed two offences. In view of the reported neglect of duty, the administration decided to call for disciplinary action against Driver Ahmed. When Driver came to know the intensions of the management, he approached union leaders.

1. Is it that Driver Ahmed has been harassed by the management?

2. What would have been your call in this case?