KUWAIT CITY, Oct 6: MP Osama Al-Menawer has submitted a bill on amending Domestic Labor Law No. 68/2015 by adding a paragraph to Article Three as follows: “Citizens who intend to hire domestic workers for their own families through direct contracting are exempted from the condition stipulated in the same article -- the need to obtain a license from the Ministry of Interior for the recruitment of workers from abroad.

In the explanatory memorandum of the bill, Al-Menawer attributed the high cost of hiring domestic workers to the aforementioned condition as citizens are obliged to sign contracts with domestic labor recruitment offices if they want to hire workers from abroad. He added this condition is tantamount to giving domestic labor recruitment offices the right to collect money from the citizens in order to provide the contracts even if the workers enter the country through the entry visa that the citizens obtain to put the workers under their sponsorship.

MP Thamer Al-Suwait proposed adding an article to Civil Service Law No. 15/ 1979; stipulating the dismissal of senior officials managing institutions whose budgets have not been approved by the National Assembly for two years during their term. These officials shall not be nominated to any leadership posts for a minimum of five years. The lawmaker explained his proposal is aimed at enhancing the monitoring role of the Assembly, which is considered the safety valve protecting public funds.

MP Marzouq Al-Khalifa submitted a proposal to grant Bedoun engineers and technicians in public institutions the same salaries, privileges and indemnity given to their counterparts in other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. On the other hand, MP Thamer Al-Suwait asked Minister of Education Ali Fahd Al-Mudaf about the College of Basic Education at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training PAAET. He requested for copies of the reports of the committee tasked to choose who among the applicants are the most qualified to serve as assistant dean for Academic Affairs and assistant dean for Students Affairs, including scores given to each applicant. By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff