By Majd Othman

KUWAIT: On the first day of Eid Al-Fitr, at around 4:30 pm, a female expat employee at a popular women’s salon in Kuwait was doing her usual job to serve a customer, despite looking pale and being exhausted. “I’m working since yesterday morning — I started at 9:00 am and worked until 2:00 am. I went home for barely two hours and came back again to the salon to continue working,” the Filipina worker said.

She said her Filipino, Asian and African colleagues have been working since the day before the first day of Eid Al-Fitr, pointing out that this happens every year during the holidays, especially Eid, as the salon won’t close its doors on the first day of Eid until the last customer leaves. The worker, who declined to give her name for fear of retribution, pointed out that neither her or her colleagues get any overtime pay for extra work.

Meanwhile, an Indian worker at the same salon told Kuwait Times that several times during the day she and her colleagues feel they would pass out due to a lack of sleep. When Kuwait Times asked if she requested to leave the salon to get some sleep, she stressed she cannot do this because the owner will terminate her or cut her salary. “The owner needs us to be here as long as there is a customer,” she said, adding, “we wish customers could feel us and only come during regular hours and not at 1:00 am on Eid day.”

She said the situation depends on the business owner’s ethics too. “The previous owner used to give us all our financial and holiday rights, but the new owner canceled our holidays and kept only the weekly day off,” she said.

At another women’s salon, a worker from India said her Indian coworker was fired despite working for more than 10 years after demanding a raise after all these years, especially since most customers came to the salon because of her excellent service. “After she was terminated, most of the customers stopped coming to the salon, so the salon owner immediately filed an absconding case against her claiming she is absent from work despite her termination being witnessed by all the workers,” she told Kuwait Times.

At the same salon, an African employee said many other salons pay extra to workers for overtime work, especially during Eid, while others provide workers transportation to relieve them from the burden of financial costs and as a matter of safety, especially since during the holidays, they finish their work after midnight. She said work violations do not only impact them financially, but also pose a medical threat due to a lack of sleep and excess pressure at work that exceeds during holidays at some salons to more than 24 workhours.

According to the Kuwait labor law, employers are obligated to pay their workers and employees extra pay for overtime, which should not exceed two hours per day and six hours per week, and add 25 percent of daily wages to their monthly salaries due to the extra working hours, and 50 percent of their daily pay if they work during their off days.