KUWAIT: Jess (not his real name) was recruited from the Philippines to work as a security guard in Kuwait. Based on his employment contract signed before accepting the job , he knew that he would be working eight hours per day for which he would receive KD120 per month. Prior to starting the job, however, he was asked to sign a new contract reducing that monthly salary by almost a third, from KD 120 to KD 85. On top of this, according to the new contract he would be expected to work 12 hours per day instea
d of eight, but without receiving overtime pay, effectively leaving him working many more hours for far lower pay. Not only has he been denied overtime pay, he has also been denied any holiday pay.

According to the management, it wasn't included in our contracts and we don't have any right to demand payment for overtime, while we're also exempted from holiday pay," he told the Kuwait Times. "In fact we don't even know what the holidays are in Kuwait since we have different holidays back home in our country.

Under the newly amended private sector labor legislation, however, Jess's employers' treatment of him and his colleagues is illegal. Chapter Four, Section Two, Article Four of the new law states: "It is forbidden to allow workers to work more than 48 hours per week or eight hours per day. The working hours in the month of Ramadan should be reduced from 48 hours per week to 36 hours per week only.

Meanwhile, regulations on the payment of overtime found in Article 66 of the same chapter and section state that employees should not work more than two hours overtime per day, or a maximum of 180 hours per year. Overtime pay should be set at a level of at least 25 percent above the usual pay rate, while all workers should have 13 fully paid holiday days; in the event any worker needs to continue working through their holiday period, they should receive double the usual rate of pay.

Another worker from the Philippines, Haman, a saleswoman, told the Kuwait Times that she had been shocked by her employer's deducting a full week's salary from her pay after she was off sick, despite the fact that she had provided a sick leave note signed by her doctor.

Haman explained that she had contracted an allergy, with the doctor telling her that she needed to take a week off work to recover and giving her a sick note to pass on to her employers.

[The employers] asked me to provide a sick leave note," she said. "I thought that this would serve as the basis to pay me for that period. But according to them, it was just needed for their records so as to confirm that I was telling the truth about my absence. Yet, they deducted one week's salary. Now I always pray that I won't fall sick again.

This incident took place under the old labor law, which stated that a worker was entitled to one week's fully paid sick leave per year and was a clear violation of that. Under the amended legislation, workers are allowed two weeks of fully paid sick leave, as well as ten more days on three-quarters pay. Only if a worker has been absent for 30 days or more consecutively is he or she no longer entitled to any pay. - Kuwait Times