The Al-Durra Company for Domestic Labor confirmed that the reasons for the losses it incurred following the pandemic were the failure to open new export labor channels with countries, in addition to the limited agencies and number of expat workers in Kuwait.
According to the local daily, the company is governed by the regulations of the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment to deal and contract with only two agents for the supply of labor, at the rate of 50 workers for each job order, with an insufficient percentage of 10% of the profit to cover the basic operating expenses of the company.
In addition, the report said that Al-Durra’s expenses were reduced from 408 in 2020 to 188 in 2021, equivalent to 54% for the losses in 2020. One of the former members, a representative of the Union of Cooperative Societies, was referred to the Public Funds Prosecution on suspicion of attempting to embezzle the company’s funds and sales for 2022, which amounted to 267 thousand Kuwaiti dinars. Responsible authorities were then contacted to tap opportunities with countries in order to meet the demands of the local society.
Furthermore, responding to the queries of Representatives Alia Al-Khaled and Hamad Al-Obeid, the company stated that it aims to increase the number of household service workers, open new recruitment channels from various countries, and try to resolve issues with domestic workers’ offices monopolizing the labor market and reduce the burden on Kuwaiti families. This prompted the company to contract foreign agencies to recruit HSWs from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and India, with the aim of increasing recruited workers.
At the same time, Al-Durra is in negotiations with 15 countries to sign recruitment contracts, namely, Nepal, Ghana, Vietnam, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Cameroon, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and pending the government’s approval of some of the aforementioned countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Manpower was addressed to lift the temporary ban from those countries or some of them so that the company could proceed with the signing of contracts and recruit workers.
The company confirmed that it does not have any center for training workers, although it requires agents to train its workers before their arrival to Kuwait. In addition, the local daily also published the company’s list of labor recruitment prices in Kuwaiti dinars.