Following the discovery that some government employees take sick leave and go abroad, especially on extended national holidays, the authorities had begun the process of tracking employees on sick leave by monitoring their entry and exit at the country’s air and land borders.
However, many jurists have come out against this measure by stating that such tracking is an infringement of employees’ privacy and should be authorized only after approval from the judiciary.
The legal luminaries, many of whom are government employees, pointed out that the “the process of tracing employees on sick leave violates the right of privacy as per the Constitutional Court. This right to privacy was decided by the Constitutional Court when it was presented with a parliamentary query in this regard, and the court decided that the right to privacy is related to the elements of a person’s private life,” said the constitutional expert.
Throwing his weight with the opinion expressed by other jurists, Kuwait University Law Professor Ibrahim Al-Hamoud said “Obtaining sick leave does not preclude freedom of travel as stipulated by the Constitution. Tracing is a violation of privacy and an attack on that constitutional right.”
A patient is entitled to travel and is not obliged to stay in the country during sick leave, said Al-Hamoud. He added that “permission to track the travel of employees should be given by the judiciary and not any government bodies. The judiciary will issue such permissions if it is convinced that the reasons for such tracking are justifiable.
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