Worker's rights

Couldn't agree more...

The rights of workers
Published Date: February 11, 2009
By Muna Al-Fuzai, Staff Columnist

The issue I am writing about today is a nightmare for the many expatriate workers in Kuwait who happen to work for companies that are not concerned with and have no respect for human rights and laws that are meant to protect workers. The absconding cases against helpless workers need to be handled seriously because it is getting out of control and manipulated not only by law enforcement, but by sponsors as well.

I receive complaints every day from friends and relatives of individuals who are worried about the safety and well-being of people who have absconding cases against them. What is really sad is the fact that many of these cases are faked and based on false information provided by the sponsors themselves or by those who represent the companies they work for.

How is the law handling this issue? The worst part is that the police take down all the information about a person who has left his job and consider him a fugitive. I do not believe this is fair because some abusive sponsors believe they can stop giving their workers their salaries, and when the worker becomes fed up and runs away, the sponsor then simply reports the matter to police who then consider the employee a fugitive! Nobody bothers to check if the sponsor's allegations are true or not. If a police officer stops an absconding worker on the street, he would be arrested like a criminal, even if he was walking to a new job that paid him! The falsely accused can find their ways to court and I do recall some cases where employees sued their abusive sponsors instead of absconding.

Some expatriates find themselves in situations where, after coming back to Kuwait after going back to their home country, they are arrested because their sponsors have filed cases against them. This is especially dangerous for them because it is their word against the sponsors. It is no surprise that in most cases the sponsors win, and even if the employee happens to prove his story, the law doesn't take them into consideration.

What worries me here is that the arrested people in such cases are treated like convicted rapists or murderers, which of course is not fair. The process between getting arrested and transferred to a shelter takes weeks, if not months. Some ill-minded sponsors even go so far as to accuse their workers of theft, and their rights are then totally deprived of them and they are treated like criminals even though they are totally innocent!

There is an urgent need to revise the authority given to sponsors over his or her workers' freedom and rights. I believe it is time to make sure that no sponsor issues false allegations against his or employees and it is absolutely necessary for police to make sure that they verify the validity of the complaints issued against them. Why does the law always side with the sponsors and believe they are telling the truth in all cases?

The new labor law is in the process of being passed, but unless we start to give a close look at the sponsorship system, the change will seem partial and ineffective.
muna@kuwaittimes.net

Further change such as scrapping the sponsorship system will be a next step in establishing a legal framework for worker's rights. However, changing peoples hearts and minds to remove blatant discrimination, is a more fundamental change, and until you have leaders in the community who oppose discrimination in all its forms, rather than promote it, this change will be much harder to achieve.