Kuwait Labor Law - Chapter Three

Individual work contract

Section One: Work Contract Structure
Article 27: anyone who has reached 15 years is qualified to sign a work contract if the period is not specified. If the period is specified, it should not exceed one year so he will reach 18 years.

Article 28: the work contract should be written on paper and contain the date of signing and execution of the contract, value of wage, period of the contract if it is specified, and nature of work. It should be issued in three copies, one for each party and the third will be kept at the concerned authority in the ministry. If the work contract is not written on paper, it is considered existent (correct) and the employer in this case can exercise his right through all means of confirmation.
It is not right to reduce the wage of the worker during the validity of the contract, whether it has specific period or not. The employee has no right to assign a worker to carry out any task that is not consistent with nature of the work stated in the contract or suitable to the qualifications and expertise with which the contract was signed.

Article 29: contracts shall be written in Arabic and translations to other languages can be added to it, with Arabic as binding in case of discrepancies. Rules of this article are applicable on the correspondence, publications, bylaws and the circulars that the employer issues to his workers.

Article 30: If the period of the work contract is specified, it should not exceed five years and not less than a year. The contract can be renewed after the specified period ends through an agreement between both parties.

Article 31: if the period of the work contract is specified and both parties continue implementing it after completion of the period without renewal, it is considered renewed for a similar period with the same conditions, unless the two parties agree to renew it under other conditions. In all cases the renewal should not alter the employment privileges mentioned in the previous contract.

Section Two
Obligations and penalties for employees and employers

Article 32: Probation period of the worker shall be specified in the work contract, but it should not exceed 100 working days. Each party can end the contract during the probation period with prior notice. If the employer ends the contract, he should pay wages to the worker at the end of the service in accordance with rules of this law. It is not right to require the worker to be on probation under the same employer more than once. The minister shall issue a decision to organize the rules and regulations at work during the probation period.

Article 33: If the employer signed a contract with another - a subcontractor - to carry out a certain task or part of it outside under one work condition. The one given the contract should treat his workers and those of the original employer equally in terms of granting rights and each of them should agree in this regard.

Article 34: The employer (contractor) must commit to the execution of a government project or use his employees in areas far from the residential sections. He must provide suitable accommodation to the workers, in addition to means of transportation for those residing in far-flung areas free of charge. In case he cannot provide an accommodation, he should give the employees accommodation allowance. The minister will specify the far-flung areas, conditions of suitable accommodation and accommodation allowance.
In other cases when the employer is required to provide accommodation for workers, rules of the decisions stipulated in the previous paragraph on conditions of suitable accommodations and specification of accommodation allowance shall be applicable to him.

Article 35: The employer must hang, in a clear place at the work site, the punishments bylaws that should be enforced on the violating workers. In the punishments bylaw the following should be considered:

- The violations which may occur from the workers and their punishments should be specified .
- Should include a list of punishments for specified violations

-More than one punishment should not enforced for one violation.

- The worker should not be punished for any act he committed after 15 years of the date of the act was detected

-The worker should not be punished for an act he committed outside his work site , except if it has connection with the work

Article 36: The employer should send the punishment bylaws to the Ministry before implementing them. The ministry must amend these in accordance with nature of the establishment or nature of the work as per the rules of this law.
The ministry must present the bylaws to the concerned organization, if any. And if there is no concerned organization, then general union will be resorted to for observations and suggestions on these bylaws.

Article 37: No punishment should be enforced to the worker unless he or she is informed in writing what he or she is accused of. The employer should hear the employee’s explanation and confirm his or her defense. The worker should be also be informed in writing of the punishment, its type, its reasons and amounts applied on the worker and the punishment which he will face in case of doing the same again.

Article 38: Deductions should not apply to wages of the employee for a period of more than 5 days in a month. If the punishment exceeds that the added deduction should be from wage of the next month or the following month.

Article 39: The worker cannot be stopped from working for a period of not more than 10 days during an investigation that the employer is conducting. If the investigation is completed and the employee is not held liable for any violation, then worker must be paid his or her wage for the period of stoppage.

Article 40: The employer should put the deductions from wages of employees in a fund allocated for use in social, economic and cultural fields which benefits the workers. In case the company is liquidated, the existing deductions in fund should be distributed to the workers who were working at the time of the liquidation, one period for each.

Section Three
End of Work Contract and End of Service Benefit

Article 41: In observance of the rules of article (37) of this law:-

- The employer can terminate a worker without notification , compensation or wages if the worker committed any of the following deeds:
1- If the worker committed a mistake that resulted to huge loss for the employer.
2- If it is established that the worker obtained the work as result of cheating or fraud.
3- If the worker reveals secrets of the establishment which caused or would have caused real losses.

- The employer can fire the worker in one of the following cases :
1- If he is accused of a crime that relates to honor, trust or morality.
2- If he committed an act that breaches general morality at the work site.
3- If he committed assault on one of his colleagues or on the employer or his deputy during work or because of it.
4- If he breached any of the obligations imposed on him with the contract and rules of this law.
5- If he is proven to have repeatedly violated instructions of the employer. In this case the decision of firing does not mean depriving the worker from end of service benefit.

- The employee who is fired for one of the situations mentioned in this article has right to challenge the firing decision at the concerned labor division (court) in accordance with the procedures stated in this law. If it is established, according to final verdict that the employer was wrong in firing his worker the latter deserves end of service benefits and a compensation for material and moral damages he or she suffered.
In all cases the employer should inform the ministry of the firing decision and its reasons, and the ministry should take charge of informing Government Restructuring Manpower

Article 42: If the employee stops going to work for 7 consecutive days or 20 separate days within a year without acceptable reasons, the employer has the right to consider him legally retired. In this case rules of article 53 of this law are applicable in terms of worker deserving the end of service benefits.

Article 43: If the worker is arrested or detained due to accusatioins of the employee for uncompleted court verdict, he is considered stopped from work. The employer has no right to end his contract, except if he is convicted with a complete verdict.
If a verdict is issued acquitting him from the accusation the employee must pay his wage for the period he was stopped with fair compensation to be estimated by the court.

Article 44: If the work contract has no specified period both parties have the right to end it after notifying other party and the notification should be as follows;

- Before completing the contract with a 3 month notice at least for the worker on a monthly wage.

- Before completing the contract with a months notice at least for other workers. If the party who ends the contract did not take in to account the period of the notification then he must pay the other party for the notification period equal to wage of the worker

- It the notification for ending the contract is from the employer, the worker has right to absent full one day in the week or 8 hours during the week, so as to search for other work, and he deserves a wage for one day or the hours of absence. The worker should specify day or hours of absence with condition to notify the employer about that at least in the previous day of the absence

- The employer should relieve the employee of work during the period of notification and count as work service until such period is completed.

Article 45: The employer cannot use right of ending the contract in accordance with the previous article when the worker is enjoying one of the leaves stipulated in this law

Article 46: It is prohibited to end service of the worker without any justification or because of syndicate activity or because he is wanted or enjoying his or her legal rights as per rules of law. Also it is prohibited to end service of the worker because of gender, race or religion.

Article 47: If the work contract has a specified period and one of the parties ends it illegally, he must compensate the other party for damages. The amount of the compensation should not exceed the wage of the worker for the remaining period of the contract.

Article 48: The worker can terminate his employment contract without notifying on his end of service payments in any of the following cases:

- If the employer does not enforce the terms of the contract or violates the labor law.

- If the employer or his deputy insults him or the employer encourages such acts.

- If continuous work puts his health and safety at risk as per the decision of the medical judgment committee at the Ministry of Health.

- If employer or his deputy cheats in terms of the contract at the initial signature period.

- If the employer accuses the worker of committing mistakes punishable through criminal penalties and court clears the worker.

- If the employer or his deputy commits unethical or immoral actions against the worker.

Article 49: The employment contract gets terminated if the worker dies or becomes disabled, thereby, preventing him from carrying out his duties or sickness which prevents him from reporting back to work, as per a medical report from the official department.

Article 50: The employment contract ends under the following conditions:

- If an official decision is issued declaring bankruptcy of the employer.

- Permanent closure of the company.

- If the company merges with another or transferred to another owner or any other legal move by the company, the employment contract remains active and the new owner should grant current privileges to the workers.

Article 51: The employee has right to receive end of service pay as follows:

- The worker gets indemnity equal to 10 days salary every year during the first five years, and 15 days the following years. Total payment should not be more than one-year salary for employees who get paid on daily, weekly, hourly or per job basis.

- Indemnity of 15 days for the first five years, and one month salary for the following years. Total payment should not be more than the one-year salary and half for employees paid on monthly basis.
The worker is entitled to benefits for a fraction of the year, according to the service period and it will be deducted from the end of services benefits, including the loans and credits. The Social Security Law is considered in this regard, and the employer should pay the difference between the amount due to the worker from the social security and the indemnity.

Article 52: Referring to Articles 45 of this law the worker deserves end of service benefits mentioned in the earlier articles under the following conditions:

-If the employer ends the contract.

- If a closed contract ends without being renewed.

- If the contract ends according to Articles 48, 49 and 50 of this law.

- If the female worker ends the contract because of marriage a year after the wedding.

Article 53: The worker is entitled to half of the end of service pay mentioned in Article 51 if the worker ends the open employment contract, and his years in service are not less than three years and less than five years. If the period of service reaches five years and less than 10 years, the worker gets two thirds of the benefits and if the service reaches 10 years the worker gets full benefit.

Article 54: The worker who terminates his employment contract has right to get end of service certificate from the employer showing his services, work and last salary he received. The employer has no right to include any derogatory remarks about the employee or any statement that limits his chances in the labor market. The employer should return all the documents like academic certificates the worker submitted during the recruitment period.

Discussions and questions of the above most welcome