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KUWAIT: The number of expatriate workers terminated in state departments in the first half of 2018 reached 1,629, according to official statistics which further indicate that 1,431 non-Kuwaitis lost their jobs in the public sector in the past three months alone.
This is a drastic step forward in the government’s efforts to create more jobs for Kuwaiti jobseekers in the public sector by releasing expats working in state departments, especially when considering that only 666 non-Kuwaiti employees were terminated in 2017 according to statistics released by the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
The information technology system at the CSC issued recently its second quarterly statistical report for 2018 regarding the total number of government employees until as of July 1, 2018. The statistics show that the total number of public sector employees reaches 352,169, with an increase of 2,478 Kuwaiti employees compared to the first quarter of 2018. The report further shows that 42.1 percent of the employees (148,257) registered in the second quarter were males, whereas female employees made by 57.9 percent (203,912). Further, the report showed that Kuwaiti staff make up 76.13 percent of public sector employees (268,100), in addition to 4,521 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals, 48,180 Arabs and 31,368 non-Arab foreign nationals.
In terms of employment at each state department, the statistics show that the Ministry of Education has the largest number of civil employees with 114,868, followed by the Ministry of Health with 63,206, the Ministry of Electricity and Water with 21,025 and Ministry of Interior with 20,270.
Jobs wise, the statistics show that teaching staff members came first with 83,743 employees, followed by 55,712 administrative support employees, then 50,411 in medical jobs, 43,511 in engineering jobs, 23,631 in financial, economic and commercial jobs and 572 in marine jobs.
As far as qualifications is concerned, the statistics show that government employees include 5,518 PhD holders, 11,623 Master’s holders, 161,919 bachelor’s degree holders, 54,584 diploma holders, 66,629 high school degree holders, in addition to 10,911 employees (including 3334 citizens) with primary education. Moreover, the statistics show that 10,654 employees, including 7,480 citizens, have been in service for over 30 years.
Allowances
A total of KD 40,195,463 have been spent to pay various promotions for citizens in June, said manager of financial incentives’ affairs at the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) Heyam Al-Dowailah. Dowailah added that 60,333 citizens had benefited from the promotions which included KD 11,075,000 as cadre increases, KD 10,344,000 for social allowances and KD 7,473,000 for expensive living conditions’ allowances. She also noted that children allowances reached KD 2,085,000 while teachers’ raises reached KD 375,000.
Work permits
The Public Authority for Manpower gave permission to employers yesterday to apply to cancel work permits of expatriate employees who are held in jail pending a final court order, and to cancel absconding employees’ residency visas. The authority also urged sponsors in such cases to apply to cancel the employee’s work permit and pay the cost of returning him or her to their country. Further, the authority pointed that in case an employee stops showing up to work and starts working for somebody else other than their sponsor, the latter should pay the cost of returning the absconding employee to their country after the original employer files an absconding report.
Fiber optics
The Ministry of Services started the third and last phase of the fiber optics project which will provide all housing, commercial and investment units with advanced landline cables that would help change internet services’ speed from maximum of three to 100 gigabytes per second, a ministry official said, noting that the fiber optic cables would enable subscribers to receive TV broadcast as well. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that the ministry plans to increase internet speed to more than 200 gigabytes per second in the future.
