Major legal changes to the Kuwait Labor Law (6/2010) were issued today (July 9) and they’re to the benefit of employees. I have simplified the most important points and explained them below:
When can you apply for a holiday (paid leave)?
Previously: You can apply for leave after working for 9 months
Now: You can apply for leave after working for 6 months
How do you calculate the amount of leave days you have?
Previously: 6 days a week, even if Saturdays are not working days
Now: 5 days a week, employer can’t include weekends
The minimum amount of leave days a year by law is 30 days. With the new law if you take 30 days off that would amount to a total of 6 weeks since weekends can no longer be included in your leave.
Termination indemnity for Kuwaitis
Previously: When you quit your job the company would deduct the amount they paid towards your social security from your severance package
Now: Employer cannot deduct you social security payments from your severance package
Some companies are now issuing cheques for the previous employees with the amounts they had deducted
Kuwait is progressing noticeably and these new updates to the labor law are a great change.
For any legal inquiries, please email me on [email protected] and my team or I will get back to you within 24 hours.
Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.
Photo by Mohammed AlSultan
50 replies on “Kuwait Law: Amendments to the Kuwait Labor Law”
Süper!
Are the changes effective immediately?
Effective since last sunday
In that case companies will try to save its money by returning SAT as a working day or a half day.
We have saturday as a working day and hence included as part of leave.
Can an employee ask theit former employer to pay them back what they had deducted for social services payments? Can this new law be applied to previous employment? Thanks.
Nope, its effective since july 3, 2017.
I believe its effective since july 9th, 2017.
Thank you!
so what happens if the company still does not follow the rules? can the employees still do anything about it, other then going to the shoun?
SUE.
my personal experience with lawyers in kuwait has been terrible. one of them robbed 500kd on top of the 3k we had paid him for a lost case and by lost I mean, he knew from the start that it was a lost case and should’ve advised against filing it, after consulting other friends, i was told to back out before a verdict is reached. becareful when dealing with them! anyhow, his fees were 3k, the 500KD was some extra bullshit he made to squeeze some more money out of us.
Going to the shoun is the way to get a company to follow the rules. They tend to favor employees in cases where a law is clearly broken.
I don’t think you should count Saturday as a weekend , the decree claim to make it even with government employee and Saturday for them is a rest day not a weekend when you calculate vacations and it is included
Question about the calculation of leave days, does it apply to employees in the government sector as well ? Cause they’ve always included the weekends.
Point no. 2 does not make sense. Can someone explain using proper English?
How do you calculate the amount of leave days you have?
Previously: 6 days a week, even if Saturdays are not working days
Now: 5 days a week, employer can’t include weekends
Leave days will be only counted from Sunday-Thursday. A lot of companies would include weekends if employees were taking thursday and sunday off. They would count that as 4 days instead of 2. They can’t anymore.
yup exactly, previously employers would include saturday as part of your leave even if you had saturday off (2 days weekends). Now employers can’t do that and the week is calculated as 5 days not 6.
does anyone have the law translated in arabic?
The law is published in Arabic in the official gazette. It’s a book-like magazine you can buy from major bookshops.
or online….
google kuwaitalyawm
Inclusion of Saturday in leave was the most archaic of laws I have seen – its not the case even in other GCC countries.
Thank god they have rectified this now.
Saturdays are still working days for most of kuwait companies. What about that?
And many still hold the employers passport – nothing really changing here.
Is it really most? Every large private company I can think of off the top of my head does not work Saturdays.
basically these laws have been amended for kuwaiti’s … good luck to the indian guy trying to get 2 days holiday back on a 2 week break !.. be lucky to see his passport again ! … still living in the dark ages .. but dont worry .. they are gonna build another 100 malls somewhere to make everyone feel better again LMAO
Basically you’re wrong, these laws are for everyone including expats.
The only way laws will ever be amended to be more favorable to employees is if more Kuwaitis join the private workforce though, it’s ultimately beneficial to all employees
6 weeks off a year is pretty favorable I think
people are just never satisfied 😛
Less than 10 years ago it was 2 weeks. They’ve been slowly changing it partially because they realized Kuwaitis would not work for a private sector with 2 weeks vacation and 6 day workweeks
@Mark @Fajer
Does this apply to the public sector too or just the private sector?
Anyone have the link to the official newly changed law?
To be clear on Termination indemnity for Kuwaitis….
Previously: When you quit your job the company would deduct the amount they paid towards your social security from your severance package
Now: Employer cannot deduct you social security payments from your severance package
So how does the company get the money back? Do they go through something other than your severance package?
Thanks, Ms. Fajer
6 days off per year! will it be the same for employees with only Friday off?
You mean 6weeks off per year.. yes even if you have only 1 day off a week i think you are still entitled of a 6 weeks off.
So what happens if the company gives you saturdays off but still considers them “working days”, only you don’t have to show up? That is the case in my company, and even though we have two day weekends, we have saturdays deducted if we take two or more consecutive weeks, as “they are working days, we just give you permission not to come to the office”
48 hours is the weekly total hours for employee
Only friday would not count in annual holiday
Can I request my summer leave this year according to this new calculation? Do we have to wait for the next Summer?
Based on my understanding of Article 70 of the labor law (2010) and the amendment to the article that was published in Kuwait Al-Yawm, Fajer’s interpretation is incorrect.
Before the update, the Article 70 of the Labor Law (2010) specified that employees in the private sector are allowed 30 days’annual leave after completing nine months of service, and those 30 days did not include public holidays or sick leave.
The amendment to the article now states that employees are eligible to use their accrued leave after six months (instead of the previous nine). However, the amount of leave an employee accrues in a year after the new amendment is the same (30 days). The amendment further clarifies that those 30 days of leave will not only exclude public holidays or sick days (as did the previous version), but will also exclude weekly holidays i.e. weekend.
In terms of weekends in Kuwait, the labor law explicitly states that employees in the private sector are entitled to 24 hours of rest after six continuous work days. A work day is defined as an eight-hour day, and the work week should not exceed 48 hours.
The labor law doesn’t mention a specific day of the week which should be set as a weekend, and the amendment doesn’t specifically mention that Saturdays won’t be deducted from the employee’s leave balance. The amendment only specifies that companies cannot deducted the weekly holiday from the employee’s leave balance when that employee goes on leave.
Since all companies in Kuwait close on Fridays anyway, then it will be the Friday that doesn’t get deducted (as has always been the case). As such, Saturdays can still be deducted from employees’ leave balance.
Now the new law says an employee can take leave after 6 months of what ever accumulated for that 6 months which means 6×2.5 days.
So what happens to the contract signed by employees and employers before this amendment? That contract was signed when it says 9 months.. does the employee has rights to take leave 6 months or only the new contract made after the amendment is applicable?
Please explain.
Hello,
Does anyone have a copy of the updated labor law? I looked for a copy online to no avail.
@fajer
I sent an email to [email protected] about my query about my status with my employer I tried twice to negotiate with them to rejoin or give me release but they rejected. I work with them for 6 years with excellent performance and my contract is unlimited/indefinite. Please sent back to me also the forwarded message regarding Apology Letter and Request for Release. Thank you very much.
Hello Respected Sir,
I joined my company on 18th March 2017, suppose I take annual leave on 18th May 2018 then how many days will I get leave in total, I have not taken any annual leave till now.
Please tell me how to calculate annual leave of Kuwait.
My company calculates it as : after 6 month’s of continuous work then 15 days leave, after 6 month’s, for every month 2 and 1/2 day’s more leave.
Hello,
Does it mean that if my salary is 100 KD, when I will apply for my annual leave salary my company will pay me (100/22)x 30 instead of (100/26)x 30 ?
Thanks
Dear Lawyer Fajer,
Please Sir, i want your clarification on this points
The minimum amount of leave days a year by law is 30 days. With the new law if you take 30 days off that would amount to a total of 6 weeks since weekends can no longer be included in your leave.
Are we going to calculate each week as 7days or how many days?
If 7days, it means 7days x 6weeks= 42days for a year vacation.
Or how Sir.
Dear Lawyer Fajir sir
I am working in private sector. My working hours is 7 am to 3.45pm. Lunch break 45 min. Including Break i am working 8 hr 45 min. As per kuwait labour law is is it legal?
I would not recommend anyone get involved with this lawyer. Back in 2015 I thought I had found someone who was honest and would help me out, well it’s 3 years later and I can’t even get a response anymore, and who knows what happened to my case.
How sick days are calculated, if company gives Friday and Saturday off, will Saturday will be counted
Maternity leave and unpaid leave as well, is Saturday should be counted.
Does anyone have a copy of the updated labor law stating you can avail annual leaves after 6 months?