Kuwait Labour Law and Employment Contract

Legal

Probation

An employee can be hired under probation for a maximum of 100 days. This is applicable by the same employer only once for each employee. Contracts that are under probationary period can be terminated without prior notice. An accumulated compensation will be given to the employee.

Remuneration & Deductions

Basic pay, commissions, incentives, obligatory bonuses, gratuities from third parties and employee benefits such as housing allowances are included in the remuneration. Allowances on account of expenses and profit shares are not part of remuneration. If the employee’s contract or the company by-laws include bonus payment, or if such an amount is paid regularly every year, the company is obliged to pay the workers’ bonus too.

The content of remuneration is important, because, in case of an injury, the amount mentioned in the remuneration will be used to compute the terminal compensation or indemnity. The payment may vary, for instance, if employee’s salary is paid based on number of working hours, the company will use the last salary payable.

No minimum wage is slated in the private sector labour law. A monthly salary should be paid for hired employees. Salaries can be given away every two weeks for piece-workers who work on hourly or weekly wages. An employer should prioritize payment of employees’ salaries and termination benefits over other creditors if the employer declares bankruptcy.

An employer cannot compel their employees to purchase products they manufacture or produce. If a worker is indebted to his employer, a deduction must not exceed 10 percent of his salary and interest may not be charged to the worker. When a third party debt is attached to employer’s salary, only 25% of employee salary should be deducted.

Working Hours

Eight hours a day and 48 hours a week is the required working hours for an adult worker. An employee must be allowed an hour rest or break after five consecutive hours of work. This one hour rest or break is not included in computation of working hours. MSAL can modify these standard working hours on case to case basis.

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