The Occupational Safety Center of the Public Authority for Manpower began surprise campaigns to round up violators who do not comply with decisions not to work under direct sunlight from 12:00 noon until 4:00 pm from June 1 to August 31 of every year, the decision that has been issued by the competent authorities in the best interest of those who work outdoors.
A local Arabic daily said on the first day of the campaign 40 violations were recorded, and it was found that about 47.5% of construction workers are domestic workers.
During the campaign, headed by Hamad Al-Makhial, in the South Abdullah Al-Mubarak area, the area that witness a heavy construction activity, the team was able to detect 50 violating sites, in which 40 violations were recorded against 13 workers (Article 18), and 19 others for domestic workers (Article 20).
On the sidelines of the tour, Al-Makhial stressed the workforce’s keenness on the importance of maintaining the safety of workers without harming projects and the interests of employers, pointing out that the implementation of the decision comes in compliance with international charters and agreements ratified by Kuwait to preserve labor rights.
He added that the authority will follow all legal procedures against violators, as the occurrence of the violation and its repetition will expose the owner to legal accountability, and the consequent closure of the file of the company involved in addition to the imposition of financial fines.
The Workers’ Committee in the Kuwait Society for Human Rights and the head of the ‘The Heat Kills Them’ campaign, Mashari Al-Sanad, called for the necessity of following up on workers who violate the decision to prevent employment during the afternoon, even for cleaners in the “Municipality”.
Al-Sanad pointed out that the Municipality is also required to follow up and monitor the cleaning companies, apply the law and abide by the decision to ban the employment of workers under direct sunlight, calling for shifting their work to the evening shift.
