KUWAIT: Deputy National Assembly Speaker MP Abdullah Al-Roumi has presented his report on the recently introduced public labor legislation following allegations that some of the clauses were illegally amended after the law was passed.
In his report, Al-Roumi said that he found all of the legislative clauses to have been left intact in the finished draft, but two of them, numbers 16 and 68, had been corrected. He explained that mistakes had been included in these two clauses for several reasons, none of which were connected to any wish to change them. They had probably been included due to the fact that there were a total of 150 clauses in the legislation, all of which had been agreed after lengthy discussion carried out over several parliamentary sessions, with discussion of some of them overlapping, leading to a degree of confusion.

Clause 68 pertains to the regulations for deciding official holidays, he said, with the error in the wording of the bill taking place in the final text which stated that only two days - Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha - would be allocated as official holidays, since this conflicted with the agreement adopted by the parliament which gave a three-day holiday for each of these major festivals.
On the error in the text of Clause 18 of the legislation, Al-Roumi explained that this clause is related to the regulations controlling professional training, with an erroneous statement being included exempting training periods of less than three months in length from being affected by the legislation. This has been corrected by removing the statement in question, which was not included in the original draft law endorsed by parliament, he added.

Meanwhile, in other parliamentary news, the parliamentary interior and defense committees are preparing to respond to statements made by MP Walid Al-Tabtabae who accused both committees of being "a graveyard for draft laws in which the parliament dumps any draft laws which it doesn't wish to see passed.
On a separate issue, MP Falah Al-Sawagh has condemned the Ministry of Education (MoE) for its plan to privatize public schools, saying that the education ministry should instead address the new challenges it faces in terms of rising student numbers.

Also on an education-related note, MP Dr. Yousef Al-Zalzalah has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Higher Education that American universities in Qatar should be included on the list of international universities suitable for female Kuwaiti scholarship students, "due to the prestigious and highly qualified academic levels that these universities have proved themselves to have attained.

Meanwhile, on the subject of the interpolation motion against the information minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, MP Khalid Al-Sultan said that the fact that 22 parliamentarians have already voiced their support for the grilling motion proves its strength. He added, however, that an interpolation does not indicate that a no-confidence motion is on the cards, reported Al-Qabas. On the same subject, MP Saadoun Al-Hamad said, "The interpolation has become essential in order for the minister to be hel
d accountable for failing to implement the audiovisual legislation, allowing corrupt media to use this flaw to damage national unity.

On another issue, health minister Dr. Helal Al-Sayer responded to a question from MP Mohammed Hayef on safety levels in Kuwait's hospitals, explaining that a joint committee had been formed between the health ministry and the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate (KFSD) to check on the safety procedures in place at all Kuwait's hospitals, including regular field tours during which maintenance work is carried out on safety devices and equipment. - Kuwait Times