A
y
e niv rsar n
Years
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2011
local kuwait digest
Understanding the pay rise demands By Walid Al-Rujaib
C
ontroversy continues to grow regarding pay rises and allowances demanded by public sector staff, as does the debate between people demanding procedures to tackle increasing living conditions, and others protesting against the added expenses for the state budget. To have a better understanding of whether financial privileges have become a necessity or a card used sometimes by MPs to garner voters’ support, there are some facts regarding the topic which need to be considered. Rising rates of inflation in Kuwait, recently estimated at 27% per annum, are provoking complaints about price increases and unchanging salary levels. There are professions of either a hazardous nature or suffering from lack of qualified personnel, which do require additional allowances to make them more attractive to jobseekers in light of public sector overstaffing and the private sector’s inability to secure sufficient numbers of job opportunities. Such demands for increases in wages and allowances are usually refused by those private sector firms which prefer to see the majority of government spending directed towards purchases and other contracts with the private sector. These firms usually overstate the negative factors which they claim are created by enforcing such increases, out of concern that such rises will drive employees away to work in the public sector instead. On the other hand, there are valid objections to these allowances made from a more national point of view. These are based on concern over the waste of public funds in unexamined payments, and offer an alternative solution in the form of conducting a comparative study between prices and salaries to achieve balance. In general, although we oppose the squandering of public money, we understand the financial difficulties that citizens are facing, and demand that a balance is achieved between wages and prices in the country. It’s up to the government and lawmakers to find a formula that meets these demands. — Al-Rai
Legislation needs revision: Expert Women’s housing loans approved, not applied By Hussain Al-Qatari KUWAIT: Approximately 14,000 women have applied for assistance from the Women’s Housing Fund, a state-established fund which will be revised and re-discussed when parliament resumes work in October. Loopholes in the legislation establishing the fund might prevent the female beneficiaries from receiving the keys to their new homes, according to Kuwaiti lawyer Mar yam AlBahar, a member of the Kuwait Lawyers’ Association’s (KLA) Women’s Committee and a legal advisor to the parliamentary Women’s Affairs Committee. According to Al-Bahar, the legislation has many loopholes that will leave many of the 14,000 applicants unable to benefit from the legislation. She cited one article as an example: “One of the articles suggests that the [applicant’s] divorce must be final according to Islamic Sharia. However there are women who have been divorced and their ex-husbands have passed away. On the legal record, her divorce is not recorded as a final divorce. They are not eligible to receive housing allowance, so this legislation is useless to them,” she said. In Sharia law, there are three types of divorce. The first is when a woman is divorced and hasn’t yet completed her idda, a
period of four months and ten days during which the divorcing couple can reconcile. The second is when she is divorced but has not reconciled with her exhusband after her idda, which
three times. That is, when she cannot go back to the same husband unless she has been married and divorced to another man in the intervening period. In some countries, a hus-
been divorced for more than ten years and who have no way of getting back with their husbands. This law doesn’t support them.” Speaking about the urgent
KUWAIT: Al-Hamra Tower in Kuwait City soars above the surrounding buildings in the downtown area. This image is used for illustrative purposes only. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat requires that the couple put new terms for a new marriage. The third and irreconcilable form of divorce is when a woman has been married and divorced to the same person
band can make the divorce final and irreconcilable if he pronounces his wife divorced three times in court. Al-Bahar explained: “There are many women who have
need for amending the housing fund law for women, the legal consultant explained that when a Kuwaiti woman is divorced, she is permitted to remain in the marital home until the chil-
dren reach puberty or, in female children’s case, until they get married. “If the children are boys, the mother can remain with them until they reach puberty. If the children are girls, the woman has the right to stay in the same home until the girls are married,” she said. Based on her experience as a lawyer who has represented many divorced women, Al-Bahar said that the majority of divorcees end up leaving their former husbands’ homes to move with their families or find places of their own. “When a divorced Kuwaiti woman tries to find an apartment for rent, the majority of owners refuse them because of society’s derogatory perception of a divorcee,” she revealed, adding, “Not all women come from well-off families who can provide them with villas or apartments to live in after divorce, though, and divorce rates are on the rise according to all the statistics and studies, so legislation is essential.” Aside from the legal loopholes, Al-Bahar explained that the approved legislative proposals have still not been implemented. “This is a problem we face in Kuwait, where there are many laws and regulations that aren’t activated. The culprit is partly the bureaucracy, but it is also the fact that many regulations aren’t well-researched and studied before their application,” she asserted.
MoC looks to end promotions dilemma KUWAIT: The Ministry of Communications continues to struggle in controlling disordered administrative department, which most recently saw minister Sami Al-Nisf personally interfering to stop staff promotions that ignored standards of reward as per performance as many employees believe. Several ministry officers protested a
‘supervisory jobs list’ prepared by senior ministry officials which contained names of staff to be promoted or reshuffled, claiming that many hard working employees were ignored in favor of others who have influence with higher officials, and who do not meet qualifications to be moved ahead of them in the ranking ladder.
Minister of Communications and Information Sami Al-Nisf stepped in by suspending procedures before the list was passed, in order to allow for grievances submitted by the protesting staff to be examined. In the meantime, most insiders believe that the best way to handle the dilemma of promotions - which staff members have
been waiting for more than two years - is for the grievances to be checked by a committee formed by the minister from unbiased senior officials from the ministry’s administrative and legal departments. “Such committee would be able to properly examine the qualifications of each candidate to determine their eligibility for promotion”, reported Al-Qabas.