I am working with a motorway consultant on a MPW contract. I would like to get a clarification from you about annual leave. I took my annual leave up to Feb 24, 2013.

Feb 25 and 26 were the National Day and Liberation Day holidays. I joined duty on 27th February because 25th and 26th had been declared as holidays.

My company has included 25th and 26th February in my annual leave or said these days will be considered as leave without pay. Please explain to me what is correct according to the Kuwait Labour Law.

Name withheld
Answer: Your company is wrong. As we have said a number of times, all the holidays falling at the start and end of annual are considered part of the leave but can’t be deducted from your leave. It’s the same as not counting the weekends and official holidays falling within the annual leave.

The only occasion that your company could be right is if it had decided that it was not going to give the employees off on those two days and was going to call the staff for work on overtime pay.

If such a declaration had been made, you will be considered absent from work - in spite of the fact it was a national holiday - and can also be penalized.

There are a number of firms which, due to the nature of work, can’t close or decide not to close for various reasons. In such a case, the employees can’t take matters into their own hands and decide not to come for overtime work. Any employee who decides on such an action can be penalized in a manner the firm decides.

But if your company had given these two days off to all the employees, these can’t be deducted from your leave nor can these be considered as unpaid leave.