Draft law required in Kuwait to raise allowances for teachers with unique specialities

KUWAIT CITY: Increasing the allowances for teachers with rare specialties or using the term ‘scarcity’ of other specialties will need a draft law to amend the law currently in force, reports Anba daily, quoting high-level government sources.

The sources explained, the abolition of the scarcity status of current specialities cannot be stopped by a decision. The sources added, the rumors about the possibility of issuing decisions to implement any amendment to the regulations to increase the allowances for rare specialties for teachers is not related to the fact.

The sources stressed that the Ministry of Education has only the obligation to implement the content of the current law on the level of payment of the allowance provided for by law, in addition to eliminating the scarcity of specializations in which the proportion of Kuwaitis is 30%. This is in addition to the non-payment of rare specialization allowances to any new disciplines.

In response to a question on the preparation of the state budget for 2019/2020, the sources said, work is underway to complete the state budget with double efforts for the year to finalize a new law. In terms of providing work for the recruitment professionals, informed sources told the daily that in particular everything should be done to attract Kuwaitis to work in the private sector through practical measures and decisions.

The sources pointed out that after the amendment of the decision of the ratio of national employment in the private sector and with the relative decline of those wishing to work in this sector, the competent authorities have begun to implement practical measures to recruit at least 20,000 citizens in the private sector.

The sources pointed out that one of these measures is to expedite the implementation of a procedure that has been under consideration for a period of time to open the door to the current government employees to obtain leave of one or two years to work in the private sector.

The sources stressed that such a procedure must be applied while ensuring the right of the employee to return to government work. The sources demanded that the procedure coincides with the financial advantages equal to them and government employees.

The sources appreciated the amendment of Article 70 of the Labor Code, which stipulates that the employee in the private sector has the right to 30 days paid annual leave, and not to calculate the official holidays and sick leave occurring during the annual leave.