The labor support allowance is the reward money given to those who chose to work in the private sector instead of working in the public sector, as a form of compensation for the relatively low salaries in companies, the nature of its hard work, strict attendance rules, short annual leaves and other things. Although the allowance may reach KD 600, choosing to work in the private sector went below the required level, although it was good at the start, and made many people to head for the private sector and leave the public sector job.

But the situation suffered a severe setback following the bad and catastrophic decision that was issued by former oil minister Mohammad Al-Busairi, the Muslim Brotherhood representative in the government at the time, when he increased the salaries of workers at the oil sector to unreal levels, followed by similar decisions made by other government entities. This created a wave of counter migration from the private sector to the government, and all that is the result of that bad decision and the government's silence towards it and the one who took it.

This led to the existence of more than one cadre for salaries, and the government is still unable to find a solution for the large discrepancies between the salaries of certain sectors, compared with others, and this is what got the Civil Service Commission, the labor support allowance, and the entire employment cadre in a maze that no one knows how to get out of.

There is no doubt that the idea of pushing the youth to work in the private sector is good, but the continued government's inability to change the negative view of the manual work, and for the idea of working in the private sector's activities, except for working in banks, may have emptied the idea of the allowance from its content and meaning, to a point that many will prefer to remain at home unemployed than working in the private sector and receiving the salary and rewarding support allowance.

Secretary general of the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program told Al-Jarida daily that the total job opportunities available at the co-operative societies sector is nearly 2,000, but the number of those who applied for those jobs among citizens is not more than five percent. This is a moral catastrophe before being an administrative problem, and I mean what I am saying, as through the past twenty years the labor support program sent tens of thousands of unemployed workers to meet officials of companies in the private sector.

But a scary percentage among them refused the generous offers and preferred to remain at home. The reason for that - other than them being spoiled - is because of the negative social view for those who work in a company that sells furniture or chicken for example. It became clear that the issue so far is not material, which means that any increase in the support allowance's amounts will not have the required effect; rather the issue requires new policies, the kind of which there are no room for here.-Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Qabas

By Ahmad Al-Sarraf