Q8NRI.com

Kuwait: In response to a recent report published in Al Watan Daily, entitled "60,000 expat civil servants dispensable," Deputy Chairman of Kuwait Society for Human Rights Amer Al-Tamimi said, in an exclusive interview with Al Watan Daily, that "the labor force is saturated and Kuwaitis can assume some of the positions which the foreign labor force are occupying."

Al-Tamimi asserted that "Kuwait needs to plan ahead and encourage Kuwaitis to take on various positions in the private sector." Al-Tamimi stressed that having a high number of domestic workers in Kuwait is "unnecessary" and axing many expats from their jobs is "vital to the country”s well being."

He pointed out that 84 percent of the labor force is composed of expatriate workers, while Kuwaitis make up only 16 percent. "I think we are saturated with expatriates who represent almost 67 percent of the population. The current population in Kuwait is 3.4 million, the number of expats is 2.3 million; why should Kuwait have 3.4 million people living it when we can do with two million?" he queried.

Al-Tamimi further noted that Kuwaitis are not sufficiently employed, neither in the public sector nor the private sector. "There are almost 20,000 Kuwaitis who come to the labor market every year for jobs. It is a burden on the government to locate 20,000 jobs for these Kuwaitis. Placing Kuwaitis in positions is easy, but placing them in real jobs is the challenge," he pointed out.

He went on to say that individuals who graduate from colleges and from higher institutes are not equipped to work in the private sector. "The private sector is finding it difficult to find Kuwaitis who are motivated and professional at work. This is a challenge the government faces in its attempts to reduce its dependency on foreign labor," he explained. Al-Tamimi further emphasized, "We have a saturated public sector and a hesitant private sector when it comes to employing Kuwaitis."

Shedding further light on why the recruiters have given Kuwaitis a bad reputation and why Kuwaitis are not taken seriously at work, Al-Tamimi explained that: "Kuwaitis have been spoiled by the system; they think they don’t need to work as hard and they lack seriousness and professionalism. And as long as the government can create positions for them in the public sector establishments, why should they go work hard in the private sector- After all, they get paid well in the public sector."

"Furthermore, the private sector actually prefers to hire Kuwaitis who have obtained a degree from abroad; those who have graduated from the US or UK are considered an asset and not a burden," Al-Tamimi stated.

Al-Tamimi further pointed out that many of the private sector establishments hire Kuwaitis to only meet their legal obligations. "They will register a Kuwaiti as being employed which will allow them to meet the rules of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. However, they will actually tell the employee to stay at home, urging him or her to not burden them and their salary is deposited at the end of each month. In other words, most of the time there is no employment but rather pretence," he lamented.

Al-Tamimi went on to explain that the problem is that the government has taken the responsibility to locate employment for every Kuwaiti who has graduated from high school, college and university which is not realistic. "Finding employment for 20,000 job seekers is impossible. Even more, everyone wants to work for the public sector because it easy, it is safe and it pays well," he added.

Further explaining the ”attitude” which some Kuwaitis have adopted, which is not working to their advantage, he remarked, "If we were to pay a visit to one of the ministries we will find the staff sitting down having breakfast and doing nothing. Very few people perform their duties at the ministries – furthermore, they can hardly wait till it is 1:00 p.m., so that they can leave for the day."

"After the Iraqi invasion, Kuwait made a mistake by opening their doors to unskilled expatriate workers. During the invasion Kuwaitis learned to function independently; they made their own food, baked their own bread and cleaned their homes without the help of domestic workers. The government did not utilize this opportunity to encourage Kuwaitis to continue to work," he pointed out.

He further stressed that there are numerous jobs that Kuwaitis can assume, such as security guards. Security personnel are recruited from Egypt and India while Kuwaitis can perform such duties. The government needs to set a minimum wage which will encourage the Kuwaitis to take up such jobs.

"We can have professional expats in the country as opposed to poor expats who are treated badly by their employers," he argued. He further pointed out that there are many expats living in the country who do not help boost the economy. "According to statistics about 70 percent of the expatriates are unskilled. These individuals earn about KD 150 per month which goes towards rent and electricity while a portion of their salary goes to their families abroad; therefore, their presence is not essential," he stated.

"The first step is to stop employment in the government sector, enforce employment in the private sector especially for Kuwaitis, and impose regulations on the recruitment of the foreign labor. Policies and a strategy need to be set whereby Kuwait needs to support Kuwaitis and help them develop their skills and equip them with the necessary tools to succeed at work," Al-Tamimi concluded.

Ghenwah Jabouri