Interior exerting efforts to cooperate with big, small companies

Traders complain of difficulties faced in obtaining drivers’ licenses for their Mandoubs

KUWAIT CITY, April 1: Assistant Undersecretary for Traffic Affairs at Ministry of Interior Major General Abdullah Al-Muhanna affirmed that the ministry has been exerting tremendous efforts to cooperate with big and small private companies and that the decisions being taken are not meant to be obstacles for those companies, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Major General Al-Muhanna dis- closed this during a meeting held with the Labor and Industry Committee of Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) recently.

The meeting, which was headed by Fahad Al-Jou’an, was the committee’s second meeting this year. Major General Al-Muhanna’s personal aides Colonel Ali Al-Saleh and Lt Colonel Ali Al-Musawi attended the meeting.

Al-Muhanna stressed the need to involve Manpower Public Authority for restricting and differentiating job titles for the representatives of private companies, clarifying that there is no problem with sales representatives for instance.

Both sides agreed that KCCI should be involved and act as the representative of the private sector in the preliminary meetings held by Ministry of Interior and the Manpower Public Authority, especially when decisions that affect the activities of the sector are being taken. They also deliberated about the need to review Law No. 6/2010 concerning private sector labor due to some shortcomings noted in the past years.

Meanwhile, members of the Labor and Industry Committee who are traders and industrialists presented many complaints and petitions concerning the difficulties faced in obtaining drivers’ licenses for their representatives (Mandoubs).

They explained that these representatives are in charge of distributing their products at sale outlets such as cooperative stores and supermarkets. It is difficult for sale representatives to meet the conditions specified in Decision No. 5598/2015 and this problem represents an obstacle for activities relating to distribution of goods. The condition stipulates that applicants should not be earning less than KD600 per month and they should be a university graduate.

They indicated that companies and factories find it difficult to meet this condition, as it is essential for their representatives to obtain drivers’ licenses so that they can distribute their products.

The members wondered why the law did not include sales representatives among the exempted categories in the salary rule.