The labor market in the private sector witnessed a significant decrease in the number of expat workers in 2020, with the departure of about 215,000 expats across three sectors, who either left permanently or transferred to family visas, Al Qabas daily reported.
There are also extensive efforts to modify the demographics with a Kuwaitization policy to provide more jobs for national workers by implementing a replacement policy in the government sector. A government report revealed that 12,000 Kuwaitis were employed in the private sector during 2020.
Another reason for the drop in expat hiring is a fallout from the Coronavirus crisis where the issuance of new work visas to expatriates is not permitted due to the ban of entry of expats.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, the government has introduced various measures in a bid to contain and control the spread of the infection in the country. These restrictive precautionary steps, including a ban on entry of foreigners through the country’s land, sea and air borders, have resulted in nearly half a million expatriates being stranded abroad unable to enter Kuwait.
Addressing the issue of delayed salaries to expat workers, the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) stressed to the concerned government agencies that there needs to be urgent reform and concerted efforts to solve the crisis of late salaries for those expat workers under government contracts. In addition, PAM also highlighted the need to combat the residency visa trade in the country that engenders marginal labor.
According to informed sources, PAM requested the Central Agency for Public Tenders of Kuwait (CAPT) to liquidate the financial guarantees of companies in violation of the labor law in order to deliver the wages to the workers and to ensure their financial rights are upheld. The labor law forbids delays in transferring salaries to employees.
The sources also pointed out to the daily that the repercussions of the residency trade and the violations of the labor law are persisting with serious violations being noted in the labor sector. Highlighting such a case, it pointed out that a number of guards had to leave the country, being in violation of the residency law, as they were unable to renew their work permits due to the closure of their companies’ files, when it was discovered that some were registered on fake company files.
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
