publish time

20/05/2020

author name Arab Times

publish time

20/05/2020

KUWAIT CITY, May 20, (Agencies): The Labor Forum is of the view that the recent decision of the Council of Ministers concerning measures adopted to deal with the deficient national workforce in private sector would not achieve the desired balance in the labor market; rather, it’ll contribute to increase the imbalance and allow employers to transcend more on the rights of the national and foreign force, while public money will bear the burden of those abuses.

The forum said in a statement: “We followed up the recent decision of the Council of Ministers regarding the task of Public Authority for Manpower to take necessary steps toward reconsidering the value of supporting the national workforce based on the recommendation of the Supreme Steering Committee for Economic Stimulation and its report on the work of the Committee and the Public Authority for Manpower for addressing the imbalance in the labor market during the exceptional circumstances caused by the Corona pandemic.”

“The aim is to establish a balance in the contractual relationship between employers and workers to preserve their interests, by ensuring job security for national workforce. We must understand that addressing the imbalance caused by the pandemic requires decisions of the Cabinet that are not biased in the interest of employers. It should preserve public money and guarantee workers’ rights, and this can only be achieved according to a serious government approach to guarantee moving toward amending the National Workforce Support Law to include private sector, especially companies the state has shares in, as well as contracting companies in oil sector so as to provide real job opportunities and not fake employment for Kuwaiti youth,” the statement says.

Violators
■ To increase the employment rate of Kuwaitis, impose penal sanctions on the violators of employment rates and qualitative layoffs, with incentives for committed parties to eliminate obstacles imposed on the Kuwaiti workers in private sector.
■ To set plans to encourage private sector to enable Kuwaitis work in leadership positions and to develop solutions that bear the largest portion of the salary for private sector to ensure the state bears a proportion of the wages that decreases descending with the passage of time, not the other way around.
■ To activate the supervisory role of the Central Bank of Kuwait and Public Authority for Manpower, while forming work teams to track companies and hold them accountable in the event of any tampering in the rate of Kuwaitis. The companies will also be held accountable in the event of any transgression toward the workers in terms of prejudice to their salaries or replacing them with expatriate workers through the use of foreign companies, and appointing them in a manner that is inconsistent with the proportions prescribed for Kuwaitis.

■ To fully adhere to the legal prohibition of employers to reduce workers’ wages and salaries, their rights to paid holidays, and also prevent them from arbitrary dismissal from work, indicating the law obliges employers to pay salaries, wages and leave without deficiency