ROME—Seven employees of the United Arab Emirates embassy in Rome have started proceedings against the UAE Ambassador, H.E. Saqer Naser Alraisi, in an Italian labour court on charges of wrongful dismissal from their jobs at the mission run by the oil-rich nation, judicial sources said Wednesday.

 In the case that opened recently in front of a judge at the Labour Tribunal in Rome, the seven say they did not receive redundancy payments and that the embassy failed to pay their social security contributions. Several of them are demanding compensation from the ambassador, according to the sources cited by L’Espresso magazine.

The seven also claim that Embassy staff from the Emirates entered Italy on tourist visas and then worked at the embassy without contracts after those visas expired,L'Espresso reported.

 The press officer of the embassy was not immediately available for comment on the report when contacted by the Italian Insider by telephone on Wednesday.

 The UAE embassy in the Eternal City recently bought for a reported price of 23 million euros the splendid Villa Durante, a building listed as protected by the office of Rome’s Superintendant of Fine Arts,  to which the embassy is expected soon to move, L’Espresso said.