Kuwaiti private sector workers are demanding pay rises after their peers in the public sector received substantial wage increases. The chairman of the Bank Employees' Union, Mansour Ashour, revealed on Sunday that he recently headed a delegation of union officials and representatives of the Committee for the Rights of Kuwaiti Private Sector Workers at a meeting with the chairman of the Civil Service Commission, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, to discuss the issue.

The delegates told the CSC head that there is a need for pay rises for all Kuwaiti private sector workers, especially after the Council of Ministers approved salary increases of KD100 for all Kuwaiti public sector personnel not covered by the previous wage rises.

The delegates also asserted that the government's exclusion of Kuwaiti private sector workers from the recent round of pay increases contradicts its previous expressions of enthusiasm for encouraging Kuwaitis to work in the private sector. By introducing pay rises only for Kuwaitis working in the public sector whilst ignoring their compatriots in the private sector, the delegates insisted, the government was adversely affecting attitudes towards working in the latter and causing dissent between Kuwaiti people, indicating the recent disputes following the introduction of salary increases for engineers as an example.

These moves have led to more Kuwaitis choosing to work in the public sector due to the realization that they will get higher wages and better promotion prospects there regardless of performance, whilst putting them off working in the private sector. The delegates also suggested that this accounts for the difference in commitment between workers in the public and private sectors.

Ashour said that during the meeting with Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud, he and the other delegates had stressed the importance of examining their demands carefully. He explained that the pay rises demanded for Kuwaiti private sector workers would be decided in accordance with those employees' qualifications, beginning with increases of KD230 per month for those whose education ended at intermediate level or before, rising to KD300 per month for university graduates. - Al-Anba (Kuwait Times)