Posted on March 22, 2012 by American Girl
Should be interesting to see the outcome (if Arab Times provides an update). I know exactly what the defense of the company is going to be — but as long as those employees had residency in Kuwait Kuwait
__________________________________________________________
‘Violation of global rules’
Case files indicate the plaintiffs have been deprived of some employment privileges stipulated in
Attorney Mussa’ed Jamal Al-Riyahi, who represented the American employees in court, argued his clients should receive privileges as per the Kuwaiti law.
__________________________________________________________
DG say - The Kuwait/US Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) is secret, so who knows what is agreed to in there, really, pero IF you have a Kuwait Article 18 residency visa, you are governed by Kuwait Labor Law - weather or not you work on Arifjan or the other camps. You reside off camp. You are not military. You should get compensated under the Kuwait Labor Law. Bada bing.
There were many cases under CSA. I'm sure there are probably a few under the new contract holders. Hmmm. Fascinating case law....
People in my company still have to sign the Arabic document which states they have nothing left with the sponsor company and they don't even know that's what they are signing. They just know they have to sign it to get their residency cancelled when leaving. Still crooked.
ReplyDeleteI'm really curious to see how this turns out. Years ago they had everyone living ON base and didn't even allow them to leave the base -- this covered employers a bit since none of the employees had a visa 18. Or even a Kuwaiti visa stamp! Everyone flew in and out on Mil-Air. Eventually they started putting them in apartments of base which resulted in the requirement of a Visa 18 and civil ID cards -- yet the employers failed to change the employment contracts.
ReplyDeleteLet's stalk the courthouse and find out who it is! :)
:-) I hope justice will prevail :-)
ReplyDeleteDo you anything about the status of workers working on Visa 17 in diplomatic organizations like the UN and embassies? Do they follow their own laws or Kuwaiti labor laws?
ReplyDeleteI may be mistaken, but I don't think that that Article 17 applies to Kuwaiti employment law.
ReplyDeleteDG - SG here - I know who it is if you're interested. The local company that is being sued is actually run by a decent guy who is being shafted by a worthless US firm currently under indictment for fraudulent billing - no not the Evil Empire. The employees that are bringing the case got dumped on by their EMPLOYER and since they had no legal recourse against them are suing their employer's agent in Kuwait.
ReplyDeleteSG - yes please. Who?
ReplyDeleteDG, I am curious where I can find information on our Kuwaiti sponsors role in all of this. We have to have one to work here, what is their function? What are their responsibilities?
ReplyDeleteHas their been any more talk of finally releasing people from this archaic system and allowing self sponsorship?
Thank you.
Sometimes companies don't post their policies and procedures because then the management/companies would be responsible for adhering to them. I believe it is the same methodology being used in terms of defining sponsor roles in Kuwait.
ReplyDeleteSo, I'm not a lawyer, but from my understanding it goes like this: A sponsor is a double-edged sword. Sometimes the sponsor is bad, sometimes the company they are sponsoring is bad.
What probably happened in this story is that the fraudulent US company did bad things to their employees. But - since they are a US-based company with (possibly - my guess) no legal presence in Kuwait, they must have a Kuwaiti sponsor. So the sponsor goes into the business relationship believing in good faith that the US company will do the right thing. Again since there is no legal presence for the US company in Kuwait, the Kuwaiti sponsor is held liable (as a representative of the US company in Kuwait) by Kuwaiti law. The employees sue the Kuwaiti sponsor. The sponsor must then, with the assistance of an international firm, sue the US company (and hope that they are still in business and their assets can be attached in some way). It is a very long process.
If the sponsor is a person of power, they will have the ability to do a number of nasty things in Kuwait to the US company. If it is a Kuwaiti small business person with limited resources, he/she may have little recourse.
If you are entering into a business relationship with a sponsor in Kuwait, make sure that your contract is rock solid; that you have a good Kuwaiti commercial lawyer; and an international lawyer in the event of something going wrong.
When will the archaic sponsorship system end? My guestimate is that as long as people are making money off the system, it will be a long wait.
what if your company doesn't go by Kuwaiti or American law, what then?
ReplyDeleteI filed that case and others followed. Case is still in the court and active. Read lower half of link. http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/191820/reftab/96/Default.aspx
ReplyDeleteMy company played hard ball after that. The State Department, US Senate, and Inspector General left me hanging in the end but the case is still in play in Kuwait.
Be careful about those Arabic documents. My company gave one to sign to close my visa. I had it translated and it was true but it also said that the company and the sponsor had paid me all monies due. Nice trick and good thing I did not sign it.
ReplyDelete