KUWAIT: In a recent session, the parliament approved amending the law to establish a closed shareholding company to recruit domestic helpers and referred it to the government.

The first article of the law stipulates establishing a closed shareholding company that would only make profits of a maximum 10 percent of the total cost of recruiting a domestic helper.

According to the law, 10 percent of the shares would be allocated to the Kuwait investment authority, the social security body, the minors’ authority and Kuwait Airways each, while 60 percent would be allocated for the Co-ops Union.

However, a number of domestic helper office owners criticized the law, accusing it of monopolizing the business at the expense of people who have been practicing it for over 25 years.

Commenting on the issue, one of the owners, Nader Al-Habib, said that the new law opens for the proposed company to make considerable profits at the expense of citizens because the 10 percent proposed profit would be consumed in fees, medical tests and flight tickets.

He added that the aim of amending the law was to make profit and not serve citizens. Another owner, Ali Al-Ali, expressed amazement at the government’s call to establish a new company at a time when it was considering privatization. He said that the government should fight fake offices and those trading in domestic labor through social media networks.

Meanwhile, owner Nayef Al-Mutairi stressed that over 120 offices would persist with lawsuits they had filed against the law to protect their rights. He also described the law as unconstitutional. Further, Mutairi said that domestic helper office owners had filed 33 lawsuits against bloggers who had been slandering the owners and making false accusations. —Al-Anbaa