KUWAIT: Hours
after airport employees revealed plans to stage a strike in protest of 'unpaid
allowances,' Director of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Yousif
Al-Fauzan announced yesterday unifying the allowances of some staff members
working shifts at Kuwait International Airport departments. Fauzan said the
Civil Service Commission (CSC) issued a resolution on Thursday explaining that
shifts would be of eight hours each and every air traffic control staff member
will work morning, afternoon and evening shifts on three consecutive days,
followed by two days off.

Fauzan added
airport staff will work the same eight hours for three consecutive days
followed by one day off instead of the old system of working a full 24 hours
followed by 48 hours off. Earlier yesterday, DGCA employees' syndicate stressed
that it will proceed with plans to go on strike tomorrow. The syndicate's
chairman Jaber Al-Azmi said the CSC only approved allowances for air traffic
control staff and that the syndicate insists on unified allowances for all
staff members working shifts. However, the union did not release a statement
after Fauzan's announcement, or comment whether they still plan to stage their
strike or not.

Students'
allowances

Secretary general
of the National Union of Kuwaiti Students in the United States of America (NUKS
USA) Ali Al-Ghanem said the Ministry of Higher Education agreed to increase
scholarship students' allowances and contacted the finance ministry in this
regard. Similarly, Ghanem's counterpart in the United Kingdom, Nayef Al-Alatti,
announced the same for students studying in the UK.

Separately,
Education Minister Hamed Al-Azmi ordered an immediate investigation over a
social media video showing a teacher allegedly assaulting a student, and
strongly rejected any leniency towards such violations. Additionally, the
ministry emphasized in a post on its official Twitter account its total
rejection of assaulting students at any educational facility.

Expats' contracts

Responding to
parliamentary complaints, the Public Authority for Manpower stressed that it
operates according to law number 6/2010 and its amendments pertaining business
owners and the assessment of their needs. The manpower authority also stressed
that it fully abides by the CSC resolution concerning replacing expats with
citizens in government jobs, adding that contracts of hundreds of expats had
been terminated this year.

Cultural center

The Farwaniya
committee at the Municipal Council is due to discuss a number of topics in this
week's agenda, including building a cultural and educational center for the
Bohra community in Ardiya and a parking lot in Omariya.

Housing issue

MP Omar
Al-Tabtabaei said that his grilling motion against the minister of public works
was the fruit of hard work by a large group of citizens over a common major
concern in their lives - housing. Tabtabaei added that citizens have to wait
four or five years to get a house. "The real achievement is to give
citizens their house keys instead of the deeds," he stressed, pointing out
that citizens are currently paying KD 700 in monthly rent, which overburdens
Kuwaiti families.

By A Saleh