Legal Clinic

I am writing you, to seek legal advice and guidance. Currently I’m working in a private company for retail sales. I joined the company last December 02, 2018 and completed my one year service time last December 02, 2019 This year January 01- 31, 2020 is my annual vacation. Next month when I resume work I want to tender my resignation. In my company now my current salary is KD 250 but my company is deducting KD 10 for my visa. Last year, 7 consecutive months my company deducted KD 10 for my visa Article 18 which is valid for 1 year.
Last November I already renewed my visa, now this time is 2 years validty and the same thing my company deducts KD 10 last month December salary. This condition not written in my offer letter nor in my contract where I signed.
This time I have found a new company to join, my question is do I have the right to not finished the 3 months notice period in my old company? Second just in case my old company agree to let me go after 2 months time of my notice period do I need to compensate the remaining 1 month? Can my company force me to pay the remaining days of my notice period that I did not finish, specially when I want to take the passport from.

Name withheld

Answer: The 3-month notice period is mandatory and on no account can you decide unilaterally not to give three months service to the employer before quiting finally. You can however negotiate with him to forgo all the 3 months or part of it similary you can reach an agreement to compensate him in monetary terms for the 3 months or part of it if for one reason or another you can’t offer him the mandatory service. At the end of the day however, if the employer is adamant and demands his pound of flesh, there is nothing you can do than to comply.

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Friend of mine from Philippines newly came to Kuwait on 10th Dec 2019 with 18 # work visa. At present his work permit and residency is done and envelop for Civil id just submitted. But unfortunately due to emergency issue he wants to travel to Philippines. How can he travel on an emergency without civil id.. can you please help us with a solution at the earliest…

Name withheld

Answer: With the new system in place, residency stickers are no longer placed in the passport and hence information about your residency status is captured in your civil ID card which you must produce together with your passport when exitting or entering Kuwait. In short you can’t exit Kuwait without your civil ID so this means you just have to be patient for your ID to be completed before you can travel and this will even depend on your company giving you the goahead to travel.

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I have read the reviews found on your website but I am still confused in indemnity calculation. If the employee is terminated within the following number years in service what would be the calculation? 1 year in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 2 years in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 3 years in service — what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 4 years in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 5 years in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 5 to 20 years in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? When he reaches retirement age
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he/ she will get? If the employee will resign within the following number of years in service what would be the calculation? 1 year in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 2 years in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 3 years in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 4 years in service — what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 5 years in service — what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? 5 to 20 years in service
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he will get? When he reaches retirement age
— what is the calculation and what are other benefits he/ she will get? Hoping so much for a detailed answer

Name withheld
Answer: If the employee is terminated within the first five years of his/her employment, he/she will be entitled to 15 days of salary for every year of service.

After five years of service, you will be entitled to a month’s salary for every additional month of service. It must be noted however that the total indemnity that an employee is paid, should not exceed 18 months salary. The employee who is fired but has unused leave days, must have these leave days converted to cash and added as part of the indemnity.

The employee will however be entitled to 15 days of salary for each year of the first five years of service = 75 days but these days must be divided by 26 (working days in a month) = 2.88 months salary which must be multiplied by the amount you receive in a month.

You will however get half of the total amount because you resigned. If you are still in service after five years your indemnity will be calculated on the basis of one month’s pay for each year which must be added to the earlier 15 days salary for each year and the total will be your indemnity but as you have resigned you will get two-thirds of the total if you put in less than ten years of service. You will however get the full indemnity if you put in ten or more years of service. Here too, all unused leave days should be converted to cash and added to your indemnity.

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I want to know if I can get visa extension for my son who is 1 year old and he is in the country on family visit visa. Is it possible and how can I apply for the extension. Kindly advice.

Name withheld

Answer: Unfortunately, no extension is allowed for family visit visa which has a duration of three months. In order not to fall foul of the law we advise you to make sure that your son does not over stay the visit period.

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I brought my wife here to Kuwait and I have had her done her medicals and finger printing. What is the next step? Please explain with costs involved.

Name withheld

Answer: The next step will be to go for health insurance for your wife and this will cost you about KD 45. After that you go back to the Immigration Department that issued the entry visa for your wife to stamp her residence permit and here you will be required to pay a one-time stamping fee of KD 100 which will be reduced to KD 10 in subsequent years.

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I came on Mubarak Al Kabeer restaurant visa. My sponsor told me it is not possible to transfer to another company after 3 years also. My husband is staying in Kuwait on KD 500 salary. Now can I locally transfer from this visa to depenedent visa?.

Name withheld

Answer: Yes, it is possible to transfer the visa to your husband’s sponsorship as a dependent. This can, however, be made possible only if the company is willing to release you. If the company is not willing to let you go, the only option left for you is to quit, go back to your country and return under your husband’s sponsorship.

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I have been terminated from my organization. They have served me 3 months notice, am I obliged to work.

Name withheld

Answer: The three-month notice served to you is in compliance with the labour law. You can, however, with the prior agreement of the sponsor, decide to not take up the three-month notice period given you to look for a new job or to wind up and leave the country. Please note, however, that such a decision cannot be taken unilaterally either by the employer or employee but must be mutually agreed between the two parties

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My family (wife and child) recently came to Kuwait through visit visa. Very recently my company renewed my residency with KD 500 salary scale (before it was 450). Do you have idea how to transfer my family visit visa to dependent visa (family visa) without going back to my country. I keep on asking many people but i am not getting proper answer. Could you please help me in this.

Name withheld

Answer: Visit the Immigration department where the visit visa of your wife and child was issued and you will be taken through the processes to effect the desired change if there is no objection to your request. You must however arm yourself with the following documents before visiting the Immigration department.

1. Copy of the visit visa

2. Copy of your passport

3. Marriage certificate (attested by the ministry of your country, your embassy in Kuwait and the Kuwait foreign ministry annexe in Shuwaikh.

4. Your work permit (showing salary of KD 500 or more)

5. Your civil ID card We must point out that the decision on conversion of visit visa to family visa is not a blanket one.

The officials at the immigration department are the final arbiters and they can decide to either accept or reject your application even though you may satisfy all the requirements.

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I’m a British national working in Kuwait since 2014, I don’t fully understand how things work yet and I genuinely hope you can assist me in understanding the situation. I’ve been working for this company for 1 year and 7 months, and I have not taken my annual leave. I needed some urgent money for medical purposes, I asked my company to calculate the amount I’m owed and issue it to me in the next payment.

They agreed. Following their calculations they told me that it’ll be KD 1,892/-. Which is great (that’s what I was owed for the 1 year and 7 months in accumulated leave days), however, when this money was paid into my bank account (on Dec. 26th) no salary was paid for the month of December. They only transferred the annual leave money (which was calculated and agreed upon … Why did they not pay me my salary for December? Do they owe me December’s salary? Your advice is and will be highly appreciated

Name withheld

Answer: If you worked for the month of December 2019, the company is obligated to pay you for that month irrespective of whether they paid you for your unused leave days or not. The only time that you will not be paid a salary is when you don’t work in a particular month when you are on leave. The company has the right to compel you to go on leave after you cash your leave salary or to allow you to continue to work and in the latter scenario you have to be paid for the month or months you worked. If you are sure that you worked for the whole of December, then the company owes you one month salary which you must bring to its attention.

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I am an electrical engineer working in Kuwait for the past two years. In January 2019, I transferred to another company but I haven’t received salary since last October, although they have promised to pay. I’ve officially filed for resignation but the company is asking for money before signing the release paper, so I decided to file a case against the company for my three months unpaid salary but I am hesitating, because I didn’t complete one year with them. Kindly advise on what to do.

Name withheld

Answer: If you hold a university degree you need not work for the company for one year before you can ask for a release because you were locally hired. In this case you are qualified to ask for a release at any point in time. On the other hand if you don’t possess a degree, the law enjoins you to work for one year for the sponsor before you can ask for a release. As for filing a case against the company for non-payment of salary for three months, we advise that you go ahead and do that if you are convinced that they don’t intend to pay. You worked for the three months which the company is obliged to pay you for.

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