Kuwait's New Labor Law Neglects 1/3 of its Population

I recently returned from a short research trip to Kuwait last week, where I met with an expert and active advocate on migrant labor rights and Kuwait’s new labor law, which was officially passed at the end of 2009, marking a new, significant, and uncomfortably overdue step forward taken by the Kuwaiti Government. Shockingly, no reforms were made to the country’s previous archaic and historic labor law in over 45 years.

The most significant difference seen in Kuwait’s labor law when compared to Bahrain’s recent labor reforms stems from a fundamental division of expatriate worker groups and their associated legal entitlements. To elaborate, different laws are applicable to Kuwaitis, all expatriates excluding domestic workers and (as a result) domestic workers. Previously, the country’s racially discriminate labor law tended to only favor Kuwaiti employers/sponsors and neglected the rights of the majority of Kuwait’s workforce outsourced from abroad.

The amended labor law of 2009 now offers several new achievements for Kuwaiti citizens and expatriate workers living in Kuwait, granting (amongst other things) more public holidays, paid annual leave, and an increase in termination notification timelines regardless of nationality. Despite these highly anticipated gains, housemaids and domestic drivers are absent from this law’s jurisdiction, and even today, despite encouragement from local enthusiasts and an indication that such a law is forthcoming, there is still no legislation that addresses the rights of these domestic workers in private homes. Kuwait’s new labor law has laid the groundwork for an anticipated law who’s jurisdiction will fall under the Ministry of Interior, given the sensitivity of addressing legal disputes that emerge in the privacy of the homes of Kuwaiti citizens, and many are hopeful that this law will be presented in Parliament within the next six months, hopefully ending the perpetual cycles of abuse and illegal withholding of wages and documentation that leave a total of 800,000 housemaids vulnerable to coercion. I will underscore that there are 800,000 maids working in Kuwait within a total population that is just under three million.

Kuwait is one of several countries that I will be visiting within the region as I incorporate comparative analysis research into my overall project on migrant labor across the peninsula. Kuwait, in comparison with Bahrain is lagging severely in responsibly accommodating its expatriate population, which currently amounts to over 65% of the country’s total population. A renewed focus on its previously dormant labor law demonstrates the Kuwaiti Government’s interest in reform; however, 45 years of neglect indicate that continued reform will be an arduous process that will require expanded legislation to better address vulnerable contracted and domestic workers that are excluded from current jurisdiction, a legal mechanism to confront perpetrators of human trafficking, and the abolishment of Kuwait’s sponsorship system.

An expanded explanation of the sources of Kuwait’s human trafficking problem and ways the government is responding to follow.