Court Orders Arab Valves Co. to Compensate Arbitrarily Dismissed Employee .. The Court Distinguishes Labor Compensation from Civil Damages and Rejects Reliance on Post-Facto “Absence Notices”
The Specialized Labor Court (South Zagazig) ruled that Arab Valves Company, headquartered in 10th of Ramadan City, shall pay a total amount of EGP 457,000 to Mr. Mahmoud I. A., a Production Supervisor, as compensation for his arbitrary (unlawful) dismissal, in addition to settling his outstanding statutory employment entitlements, including accrued annual leave and payment in lieu of the notice period.
As to the allocation of compensation, the Court ordered the company to pay EGP 310,000 as material and moral damages, EGP 129,000 in respect of the claimant’s accrued leave balance, and EGP 18,000 as payment in lieu of the statutory notice period. The Court further obliged the company to return all employment records and appointment documents belonging to the claimant and to issue a certificate of experience covering the entirety of his service period.
The facts of the case registered under Case No. 1224 of 2025, General Labor (First Instance), in which the plaintiff was represented by the Egyptian Center lawyer—date back to April 2025, when the defendant company prevented the claimant from accessing the workplace and from recording attendance through the biometric system, without any lawful justification or attributable professional misconduct. This occurred despite the plaintiff’s more than twenty-five (25) years of uninterrupted service with the company since 2000, during which no disciplinary measures or sanctions had been imposed against him. Consequently, the claimant filed an official incident report at the 10th of Ramadan Police Department and submitted a complaint to the Labor Office. Following the failure of amicable settlement efforts, the dispute was escalated to judicial proceedings.
The Court accepted the defense’s submissions emphasizing the legal necessity of distinguishing between compensation for arbitrary dismissal as prescribed under Article 122 of the Egyptian Labor Law, and compensation for material and moral harm governed by the Egyptian Civil Code, expressly rejecting the prevailing practice of consolidating both heads of compensation into a single award.
Furthermore, the Court articulated a significant legal principle aimed at protecting workers from abusive employment practices, holding that notices of absence from work issued after an employee has already resorted to the Labor Office do not constitute legally admissible evidence. Rather, such notices are deemed an attempt to retroactively legitimize an arbitrary dismissal. On this basis, the Court was satisfied as to the credibility of the plaintiff’s account that he had been forcibly dismissed and unlawfully prevented from performing his duties.
