Through jobs reclassification, increased allowances

KUWAIT: Mai Ibrahim Al-Mesad, Project Manager of the maritime section of the Jaber Al-Ahmad Causeway, poses for a picture at the construction site in Kuwait City yesterday. The Jaber Al-Ahmad Causeway is considered one of the longest in the world, covering a total distance of 37 kilometers between Kuwait City and Subbiya. - Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: The Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) has commenced procedures to fulfill their target of hiring around 17,000 citizens in the private sector, said Secretary General Fauzi Al-Majdali, noting that intensive meetings are being held with private sector unions to reach the suitable new percentage of national labor to be enforced on private sector companies. Majdali added that meetings began in February, when over 28 were held at the MGRP headquarters to discuss replacing expatriate workers with citizens and making the private sector more attractive for national labor.

Majdali said that the last decision on national labor ratio in non-governmental bodies (number 1028/2014) took effect on Feb 25, 2015, mandating the private sector to provide 10,000 job opportunities for citizens. "Since two years have passed and to meet the growing demand for jobs, MGRP studied previous decisions to assess those percentages," he added.

Those steps go in line with governmental efforts to address national manpower unemployment while also tackling the state's demographic imbalance as the local private sector continues to be dominated by expatriate manpower.

Local authorities are reportedly planning a study to adjust the percentage of national manpower that private companies are required to hire. This study would serve as the basis for new decisions to come as early as April to increase the number of nationals each private firm would have to hire, Al-Anbaa reported yesterday quoting sources at the Public Authority for Manpower. Officials are also eyeing an increase for the labor allowance that Kuwaiti employees in the private sector receive from KD 100 to KD 300 a month, the sources said.

The adjustments are going to be based on reclassification of existing sectors in order to make them legally obligated to hire an increased number of Kuwaiti employees. Among those sectors are media and journalism, which are to be reclassified under the business service's sector which includes engineering offices, lawyers, advisors and other, instead of the social services sector under which they are currently classified. This step would then be followed by increasing the national manpower's percentage in the business service's sector from five to 10 percent, thus forcing an increase in national manpower in the media and press.

Another proposed change would be canceling all exceptions given to certain businesses with regards to the citizens' hiring quite, such as for jobs like 'construction worker' and 'driver', while increasing the minimum national manpower's quota in general trading and contracting companies to four percent.

One month

In the meantime, head of the parliamentary replacement and employment committee MP Khalil Al-Saleh said it will be impossible to study the unemployment issue in one month because it is too complicated and requires a special vision. Saleh added that despite referring the issue to the committee on a very short notice, the committee will set a short- and long-term plan mainly focusing on creating more job opportunities and probing the real causes of unemployment. "No canned stereotypical answer will be accepted," he underlined, noting that such responses were usually phrased and written by 'advisors' who manipulate work progress according to their own interests.

"There is a team of advisors that never provides accurate numbers of citizens seeking jobs and insists on providing inaccurate statistics about expats working in the public sector," he added, explaining that these advisors usually exclude expats working on monthly payments.

Further, Saleh wondered how the employment of Kuwaitis is halted in some positions with the excuse of overemployment, while expats are being employed in the same positions. "This happened at MoE when it stopped employing citizens as history and geography teachers despite opening new schools and hiring expats to work in them," he charged, noting that although unemployment rates had been the same over the past two years, payrolls are increasing, "which indicates hiring of more expats".

Compensation

Finance Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf said alternatives to compensate citizens for the price difference after increasing fuel prices have been under discussion since Oct 2016. Separately, Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah yesterday issued a ministerial decision (number 47/2018) pertaining a new medicine price list, said informed sources, noting that prices will increase by 20 percent.

By A Saleh