In what is probably a first, the Catholic Church in Kuwait has been fined by the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) for violating the country’s Kuwaitization law.

Spokesperson for PAM,Aseel Al-Mazyad said that the Catholic Church was fined KD100 for not complying with the condition of employing Kuwaitis as a certain percentage of its staff. The spokesperson did not elaborate on how, in a country of few Kuwaiti christians, it was possible to reserve a certain quota of jobs for national manpower.

She did clarify that PAM was only responsible for implementing what the cabinet had decided and the parliament had approved through resolution 1104/2008, which set the ratio of Kuwaitis to be employed in private sector establishments, including places of worship.

However, another resolution (962/2010) passed by parliament also excludes some places from the need to comply with the previous resolution, including worship places.  It bears remembering that some churches in Kuwait are currently exempt from having to comply with Kuwaitization.

Meanwhile, it is not clear why this anomaly in the law continues to exist, or why the Catholic Church is being singled out, but it does is evidenced from the fine imposed on the church.

 


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