Contracting company of KOC did not pay for public holidays

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We are working under KOC offices through its Construction Consultancy Contract. Our contract is hourly basis but salary paid on monthly basis as per monthly time sheet. During the month of January 2020, three days mourning holidays were declared on the death of Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, Sultan of The Sultanate of Oman, 11th, 12th & 13th January, 2020 as declared by Kuwait Government.
However, our contractor did not pay the above mentioned holidays in our January salary. Sir, I would like to know, as per Kuwait Labor Law for Private Sector do employees deserve payment for all public holidays that are declared by Kuwait Government? or is there any clause where the employer can decide to pay or not to pay?

Name withheld

Answer: Under the Kuwait Labor Law for the Private Sector, employees who work on public holidays seemed statutory are to be paid overtime for working on those days.
There are other holidays described as rest days under which companies under the private sector are allowed to use their discretion to determine if they want their workers to enjoy such holidays or not.
Under this scenario the companies may also decide to pay or not to pay their workers for working on such days.
Now coming back to your question on the three-day mourning holidays declared by the government of Kuwait on the passing away of Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, all that we can say is that the days declared did not fall under the category of statutory public holidays and hence, are left to the discretion of companies to consider them for overtime payment or not.

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This news has been read 81362 times!