My friend has been working for a private sector company for the last four years and now his company has given him a 3-month termination notice. How many months will the company give him to search for a job? What about his benefits?

Name withheld
Answer: Normally companies give about a month after the cancellation of the residence for you to get a new residence but some companies give more than that. It varies from company to company. It all depends on a particular firm.

But you should remember something else which is very important as far as your rights are concerned — the company, if it terminates you (but not when you resign) is legally bound to give you one day — or an equal number of hours — every week to look for a job during the notice period.

You can divide the eight hours for the day over several days if you so desire but you have to inform your company one day in advance before you avail this facility so that the company can make arrangements to replace you during your absence.

The company — if it issues the termination notice — can’t stop you from availing this facility provided in the Kuwait Labor Law enacted on Feb 20, 2010. If it does not give you this day off to look for a job, you can file a complaint with the Labor Dept in your area.

As far as your indemnity is concerned, you will get your full indemnity as you are being terminated and this will be calculated as follows:

15 days pay for each of the four years that you have worked for this company = 60 days but these days will be divided by 26 = 2.3 months salary and not two months as some companies do. So please ensure that this is how the calculations are done.