‘Exempt laborers working in farms from Kuwaitization’
Kuwait: The Chairman of the Kuwaiti Association for Farmers, Saoud Al-Arada, asserted that the laborers working in farms are mainly non-Kuwaitis, since they receive low wages. He added that the Kuwaiti farmers pay for their housing, food, clothes, medical care, airline tickets, residency fees and health insurance.
This prompted the association to submit a request to the Secretary-General for Restructuring and Manpower, demanding that the government exempt farmers from the local manpower labor requirement which cannot be applied as a result of the low wages.
The association also requested that the wages be given directly to the laborers and not be transferred to the bank, because the wages are low and there are no banks in agricultural areas. These statements were made by Al-Arada after he met with the Manpower Planning Department Manager, Engineer Fares Al-Enizi and other officials.
At the meeting he mentioned that he had submitted a request to exempt farmers from law 1104/2008, since the agricultural sector is not profitable when compared to other production sectors.
According to him, it is governed by unstable weather and there is fierce competition from imported products. He noted that in addition to the financial obligation of the Kuwaiti farmers, the materials required for agricultural production are subject to the fluctuation of currencies.
Moreover, Al-Enezi asked the association to provide the committee with data regarding the registered licenses, number of laborers, their titles and job descriptions, their skills, and their qualifications.
He said that the committee’’s representatives will make field visits to view the nature of the work in the farms, in order for the committee to make a recommendation to exempt this sector from the local manpower quota. He stressed the importance of including information about the number of productive and unproductive farms, and explained that the governmental authorities play a role in training laborers and supporting them financially. He went on to say that the former Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Mohammed Al-Ifasi promised to exempt the farmers from the quota because this sector is unattractive for Kuwaitis due to the hard labor required.
Nafel Al-Humaidan
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