I was in Kuwait a fair bit in the last two months, and was quite encouraged to see a lot of activity from the government sector relating to employment and labour.
The Arab Times on Sunday April 22nd reported on Kuwait hosting a regional forum to discuss ways to limit the negative impact of imported labour. Much of the talk from a previous forum on foreign manpower was on bringing the law further in line with the International Labour Organisation, and how to boost Kuwait's cooperation with GCC manpower.
All sounding good so far then.
Saleh Al-Shaikh form the Labour Affairs Ministry of Kuwait went on to detail that some of the discussion points were related to studies into nationalising the workforce, understanding unemployment, and working out ways to keep foreign workers money in the country. Slightly concerning last point, however that is a key role of governments to fuel their own economies, so fair enough.
"Nation's capabilities tied to Manpower" was the lofty title of another piece in the Kuwaiti press, where two Ministers said that the country's capabilities relied on its qualified and trained people, and that the Ministry had great interest in training.
So much hope, and Kuwait has so much potential to deliver on some of these ambitions, but then last week they announced that women can't work beyond 8pm. Well I guess they did say Man-power, nobody said anything about Womenpower. How this is going to affect the hospitality/retail/healthcare etc sectors I don't think anybody really knows yet. What about crew working for Kuwait Airways - or is it okay so long as you're off the ground or in the airport, or in a taxi on the way to the airport. What about nurses, do we have to be sick before 7:30 - or only have babies before sundown?
Lot's to explore here, but it doesn't seem as though this law may have to be revised ever so slightly.
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