When expatriate employees swindle companies or citizens, parliamentarians rise up in arms and call for throwing out all expatriates or at least setting up a fund to compensate the victims. For their part, the authorities immediately swing into action and arrest the perpetrators if they are in Kuwait, or seek their extradition if they had escaped to their own countries.

However, when companies or citizens swindle employees, there is no such uproar from the lawmakers, nor is there any effective action from the government. Time and again there have been incidents where companies or citizens recruit people from abroad and, either do not provide them with the jobs they were contracted for, or fail to pay them salaries for months on end. Very little, if any, stringent measures have been taken in the past against companies involved in such nefarious activities.

The latest incident of gross injustice to workers came to light a couple of days back, when scores of employees of a company demonstrated in front of the company office in downtown Kuwait City. The employees alleged that the company had failed to comply with the terms and conditions mentioned in the contract, refused to pay their salaries, and repeatedly violated their labor rights.

The workers, who were hired as car and motorcycle drivers to deliver ‘goods’ in Kuwait, accused the company of swindling them. They said that each of them had paid an equivalent of KD 1,000 to get a job in Kuwait. They arrived in the country about nine months ago, and since then the company has not paid them their salaries, or processed their residency permits making their stay in the country illegal. The employees said that after they protested and refused to work, the company closed down the office and challenged the workers to do whatever they could do.

The workers have since appealed to the government to intervene and help them get their rights and either refund their money, or force the company to give them residence permits, as they were hired from abroad. They said they have all the documents to prove their claims.

They added they have filed a complaint with Disputes and Settlements Department of Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) accusing the company of wrongdoing, and were looking for a lawyer to assist them in getting their dues that collectively amounts to around KD70,000.

Since news of yet another worker unrest surfaced, it has been reported that the Deputy General Manager at PAM, Dr. Mubarak Al-Azmi has personally taken up this matter and inspection team from the authority are expected to visit the workers to ascertain the facts and take action against the company.

 


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