KUWAIT CITY, 20 September 2005 — Kuwait’s Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Faisal Al-Hajji has proposed the introduction of a minimum wage for hundreds of thousands of expatriate workers, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Al-Qabas newspaper quoted Hajji as saying he has submitted recommendations to the cabinet calling for a 50-dinar ($170) minimum monthly wage for foreigners hired by private companies involved in government contracts. He also proposed a 70-dinar ($240) minimum wage for expatriates working as security guards for private companies. Monthly salaries of many expatriate menial workers, like cleaners, are as low as $70 a month.
Hajji said that after the recommendations are approved, no private company will be awarded a government contract before guaranteeing it will pay the minimum wage. More than 1.8 million foreigners live in Kuwait, which has a population of 2.8 million. About 900,000 work in the private sector, including about 60 percent from the Indian subcontinent. Kuwait also employs about 450,000 domestic workers, mostly from India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
Asian workers have staged a series of strikes in recent months, claiming they had not been paid wages in several months. The government intervened and threatened action against employers if they did not pay.
The US State Department in its annual “Trafficking in Persons Report” released in June criticized Kuwait and three other Gulf states for not doing enough to halt human trafficking and child labor. Washington has also stipulated improving labor conditions and amending the labor law as two of several conditions for starting free trade talks with Kuwait. Like other Gulf states, foreigners working in Kuwait’s private sector must have a “sponsor,” a regulation which restricts their movement and puts them at the mercy of their employers. Officials have said Kuwait has been cooperating with the International Labor Organization for the past four years, and is considering ILO suggestions for changing the sponsor requirement.
In June, the labor ministry prohibited employers from forcing laborers to work under the sun from noon to 4:00 pm during the summer months when the temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).