PAM forms specialist team to deal with cases of domestics
‘Employers can apply for permits via website’
KUWAIT CITY, June 23: Director of Public Relations Department in the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) Aseel Al-Mazeed said the authority has formed a special team consisting of representatives from the Legal Affairs and Labor Relations departments to deal with cases of domestic workers, reports AlAnba daily.
In her statement to the daily, AlMazeed disclosed the team will coordinate with the Ministry of Interior and it will be stationed at the Department of Domestic Workers in Dhajeej.
She explained the team will be in charge of receiving complaints, renewing licenses of domestic labor recruitment offices, and carrying out field inspections in these offices.
Meanwhile, Chairperson of the Kuwait Union of Domestic Labor Offices (KUDLO) Khaled Al-Dakhnan lauded the decision of the Cabinet to transfer domestic workers affairs to PAM.
In a press statement, Al-Dakhnan affirmed the union is in full support of measures to overcome challenges that the domestic labor market is facing and to improve the image of Kuwait in the global arena.
Al-Dakhnan explained the transfer of authority over domestic workers affairs from the Interior Ministry to PAM is a step in the right direction since the latter is, by default, in charge of organizing the labor market, handling labor issues, and directly involved in signing memorandums of understanding related to global labor affairs.
He added this move has eliminated fear among those aggrieved in the domestic labor sector in terms of dealing with police, let alone allowing the labor agencies to execute its mandate directly in cooperation with other relevant agencies.
Meanwhile, the decision governing issuance of work permits by the Public Authority for Manpower stipulates that employers can apply for permits via the authority’s website or relevant labor departments depending on the categories specified under the administrative Decision No. 525, reports AlAnba daily.
The daily quoting a source noted the decision allows laboratories, medical pharmacies, home medical care services, medical glasses sales points (optics), nurseries, engineering consultancy offices, legal firms, account firms, commercial aviation training and bungee jumping training to hire only specialized professionals from abroad.
Concerning private schools and private training institutes, they will be allowed to hire teaching staff only from abroad, as specified in the amended administrative Decision No. 525 based on the approval of segment classifications.
The first category consists of 21 activities that were allowed to be hired from abroad depending on the rate of needs, while the remaining 18 activities allowed to be hired from abroad in the second category are pegged at 25 percent. However, employers not included in the first and second categories are not allowed to hire beyond 25 percent, indicating they should not exceed 4 work permits.