KUWAIT CITY – The government of Kuwait is revising its regulations for recruiting overseas domestic workers to introduce pro-employee amendments.
Speaking at a press conference for the launch of a national project focused on safeguarding workers’ rights, a senior manpower official has revealed that the changes are aimed at enhancing worker protection.
Fahd Al Murad, Deputy Head of the Kuwaiti Public Authority for Manpower (PAM), also announced that the new rules are also designed to address and resolve issues related to domestic labor.
He added that diplomatic missions in Kuwait are encouraged to submit complaints on behalf of their communities.
“Upon receiving these complaints or remarks, PAM will promptly verify them and take necessary actions if an employer’s breach of contractual obligations is confirmed,” he was quoted as saying by Gulf News.
The official highlighted that the Authority was working diligently to revise its procedures to ensure workers’ rights while providing them with easy access to file complaints and report any mistreatment or breaches of their work contracts.
The national project, titled “Together For,” was launched this week in partnership with the Kuwait Society for Human Rights. This initiative aims to offer legal, psychological, and social support to workers, with a goal of assisting at least 100,000 workers through this collaboration.
Kuwait has recently grappled with a severe shortage of domestic workers, exacerbated by a ban on laborers from the Philippines, leading to urgent demands for the opening of new recruitment markets.
The government has introduced multiple measures in the recent past to help the employees and the employer. Last month, Kuwait lifted a visa ban on domestic workers from the Philippines that had been in place for over a year due to a labor dispute. The ban was lifted following an agreement reached during negotiations to resolve the conflict.
Kuwait had aggressively halted the issuance of all visas for Filipino workers, citing blatant non-compliance by Philippine authorities with a previous labor agreement.
