‘CSC not responsible for salaries of public sector’

KUWAIT CITY, June 15: According to informed sources, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and its council are constantly following up the requests of the entities subject to the civil service system and the holders of various professions regarding wages, salaries, and financial benefits, within the framework of the authority granted to them. However, CSC has no authority to consider the wages and salaries of professions that are subject to special laws, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Following reports of repeated resignations among medical cadres and support medical professionals in the government sector due to low wages, the sources explained that the issuance of a law regarding the practice of the medical profession and its support professions last October authorized the concerned minister with the powers in this regard of the Civil Service Council and CSC. This is in accordance with article 80 of the law. Also, Article 81 authorized the minister to set a cadre of the highest or lowest limit, or both of them, for the material compensation that practitioners of these professions receive in return for the services they provide based on the law. This means that it includes determining the salaries and wages of workers of these professions.

The sources highlighted that the failure to issue the executive regulations of the law does not mean lack of attention to the law in determining everything related to the employees who fall within its framework. This makes CSC and the Civil Service Council distance themselves from looking at any matter related to the affairs of the employee. These powers were still given to the government agency or the concerned minister in law in order not to enter into a suspicion of legal conflict.

The sources also indicated that the reasons for the reported resignations could not be limited to the low wages and salaries only, as the doctors themselves referred to the factor of the existence of a competitive market in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, either in the private sector, or outside Kuwait regionally and globally, considering the medical staff (white army) is the first line of defense in the face of an epidemic or pandemic.