Public Service Discipline Law

Purpose and scope

• Aims to protect the public service and ensure that public facilities run properly and employees perform well (Article 2); it applies to all employees except those whose laws set special disciplinary rules (Article 3).

Key rules, rights and obligations

• No penalty may be imposed without investigating the employee, confronting them with the charge and recording their statements and defence in writing, and the decision must give reasons (Article 4).
• Penalties: a written warning; a salary deduction of up to three months' net salary, no more than a third of net monthly salary each month; loss of one annual increment; no promotion for up to two years; and dismissal (Article 6).
• An employee is exempt if they acted on a superior's order after warning the superior in writing that it was a violation (Article 7).
• A committee in each body, chaired by a legal specialist, investigates violations and makes recommendations to the minister (Articles 9 and 10).
• Cases referred to the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority include recommended dismissal of staff at grades fourteen and fifteen (Article 11) and violations linked to more than one body (Article 12).

Violations, penalties and common problems

• Leaving service does not end accountability except on death or total incapacity; the penalty is then a fine of up to three times the last net monthly salary (Article 8).
• A person dismissed by judgment or decision may not hold public office by appointment or contract except as the law provides (Article 4).
• An employee may be suspended for one or more periods totalling no more than two years in the interest of work or investigation (Article 17), and administrative proceedings stop if the same matter goes to criminal investigation or trial (Article 19).

Procedures and key deadlines

• A violation lapses on death, total incapacity, or two years after discovery without any investigative or trial step, or two years after the last step (Article 20).
• Disciplinary penalties are erased two years after they are imposed unless another penalty follows within that time (Article 21).
• The arresting body must inform the employer immediately of an employee's pre-trial detention, and the employer must let them return on release unless suspension is required (Article 18).
• The competent bodies and the employee receive a copy of the penalty decision (Article 16), which may be challenged before the administrative court under the Board of Grievances procedure law.

An advisory summary prepared by Al-Bayan Al-Wadih Law Firm. It is not an official text and does not replace the law, its implementing regulations, or advice from a specialised lawyer. The official published text and its amendments prevail.