KUWAIT CITY, July 16: Nearly 400 Bangladeshi laborers staged a sit-in opposite the Social Care Home in Sulaibikhat Thursday morning demanding that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s decision on granting a minimum wage of KD 60 to all workers be implemented, especially since the directive was to come into effect since its publication in the official gazette, reports Al-Jarida daily.

Reliable sources said the workers did not have correct information and elaborated that the decision was applicable on all government contracts whose tenders were floated since the day of announcement. The directive is not applicable on contracts which were signed before the announcement.
However, Assistant Undersecretary for Labor Sector Mansour Al-Mansour and some other senior officials met the agitating workers and explained the mechanism of implementing the decision.
Sources added that the ministry will send an elaborate memo to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enable it explain the issue clearly to embassies of the workers.

Meanwhile, Minister Dr Mohammad Al-Afasi announced the formation of laborers union in the Oil Ministry and the union will be able to function officially after the announcement is published in official gazette.
The union will protect the interests of laborers and defend their social and financial rights, besides representing them. Every well-behaved employee of the Oil Ministry over the age of 21 automatically becomes the member of the union.

Meanwhile, the head of the cleaning companies union, Ali Al Jabr, has warned of the possibility of the workers going on strike due to the inequality in their salary scales, reports Alam Alyawm daily.
He added a recent strike by one of the companies is clear evidence that injustice prevails.
Injustice is done to some workers who are still paid KD 40 based on old contracts while others are paid KD 60 a month according to a new law which has been issued by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor mandating companies hiring new menial workers to pay a minimum of KD 60 a month.
The head of the union has expressed his sorrow that current contracts to be determined by the government will not include any increments on the salaries of laborers, to make their salaries KD 60 from KD 40.

This discrepancy will create a new class among cleaning workers due to difference in salaries. This will give rise to complaints and lead to public disorder.