KUWAIT CITY, March 17: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor will enforce the new national manpower percentage law in the private sector starting from Sunday, reports Al-Anba daily quoting Assistant Undersecretary for Labor Affairs Mansour Al-Mansour.
Affirming the ministry is in charge of implementing Cabinet decision number 1104/2008 which stipulates the new percentage of national manpower in the private sector, Al-Mansour said the ministry has given the private companies and institutions enough time to correct their status prior to the implementation of the directive. He added the ministry has no intention to postpone the enforcement of the decision.

Following are the articles of the law on supporting national manpower and providing citizens with real job opportunities in the private sector:
Article 1: In applying this decision, national manpower means every Kuwaiti employed in non-government institutions and contribute to the social security through this appointment, while the expatriate personnel include all non-Kuwaitis working in any private company under its sponsorship.
Article 2: Government authorities, including the military and oil sectors, are not allowed to sign contracts directly with private companies that do not comply with the specified national manpower percentage. The authority that owns the project has right to increase the percentage after coordinating with the relevant entities.
Article 3: Private establishments should strictly comply with the national manpower percentage law if they want to obtain financial or material benefits from any government authority in line with Articles 16-18 of decree number 105/1980.
Article 4: Individuals applying for a plot or material/financial privileges from the government to help him in his profession or start an industrial, commercial, technical or agricultural activity must comply with the national manpower percentage during the recruitment process in accordance with his economic activity. This should be done in one year maximum from the time he received the plot or financial/material privileges or within six months from the launching of the activity.
Article 5: Private companies must remain committed to the specified national manpower percentage in line with their economic activities. In case they violate the rule, they have to pay an additional KD100 for the issuance of work permits to every extra expatriate worker. The Labor Sector at the ministry will coordinate with the Government Manpower Restructuring Program (GMRP) to collect the additional fee.
Article 6: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor shall issue a certificate after coordinating with GMRP, in accordance with the company’s demand, to specify the percentage of its workers. This certificate is valid for one year and companies that obtained the certificate should inform the ministry in case of changes in the percentage.
Article 7: Kuwaitis employed in banks and communication companies should constitute 60 and 56 percent respectively of the total workforce in these institutions.
Article 8: Decision numbers 904/2002 and 955/2005 or any amended directive or text that contradicts this law shall be declared null and void.
Article 9: Ministers are expected to implement the decision after its publication in the official gazette and activated six months after the publication.

The Board Chairperson of Kuwait Domestic Workers’ Office Owners Fadhel Al-Ashkanani recently disclosed Kuwait is the major destination of domestic workers from various countries, and the presence of over 700,000 domestic workers in the country indicates the Kuwaiti government is accommodating, and its keen on the welfare of domestic workers, reports Alam Al-Yawm daily.
Al-Ashkanani noted Kuwait attracts domestic workers, contrary to the impression created by the report issued by the US state department, which charges the country of complicity in human trafficking and infringement of the rights of workers.
He lamented the intention to smear the country’s image with negative activities which have nothing to do with the government, domestic workers’ offices or citizens. He described the report as unfair and conventional, which is full of errors.
Al-Ashkanani asserted some embassies are smearing the image of the country for selfish interests, because the Domestic Workers Department at the Interior Ministry supervises the activities of the offices and execution of agreements.

The Director of Follow-up and Coordination at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Khalid Meghmas has refused to consider the Bedoun community as refugees, stressing Bedouns are illegal residents in the country, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.
On the sideline of a workshop organized by the Higher Legation for Refugees’ Affairs recently, Al-Meghmas stressed it was not proper to include the issue with activities at the workshop, which had been designated to discuss refugees coming from other countries.
He pointed out that an elaborate report on the human rights situation in Kuwait will be forwarded for discussion on May 8, 2010 in Geneva, in front of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee, to answer accusations labeled against Kuwait on trafficking in persons (TIP) and the rights of its expatriate personnel.

Expatriate employees of Kuwait Municipality will now have to take ‘no-dues’ certificate from the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) before applying for their annual leave, reports Al-Sabah daily.
MEW had earlier sent a letter to municipality, urging it not to sanction leave to employees before the dues are cleared.
Sources say Assistant Director General for Finance and Administrative Affairs at the municipality Abdullaziz Al-Habib submitted a memo to Director General suggesting the above-mentioned clause be made mandatory to employees working under two specific contracts.