Contract dispute leaves 100 Americans stranded on US Army bases

Someone sent me the link to this on my Facebook site this morning.  It is the first I've heard of it.  Some companies are REALLY lowering the bar on unethical behavior.  OMG.  I hope that folks in the US are equally as "hospitable" should the company owners ever venture to the US....

Captive in Kuwait: Contract dispute leaves 100 Americans stranded on US Army bases

By Cristina Corbin

Published June 18, 2013

FoxNews.com

At least 100 American citizens have been trapped for months on two U.S. bases inside Kuwait after local police unjustly issued warrants for their arrest, a U.S. defense contractor told FoxNews.com.

Most of the Americans were working as Arabic translators for Global Linguist Solutions, which ended a lucrative deal with its sponsoring Kuwaiti subcontractor, Al Shora International General Trading & Contracting and signed on with another company. Sources told FoxNews.com Al Shora's managing director is the sister-in-law of the Kuwaiti prime minister.

When the contract ended Feb. 17, Al Shora refused to transfer the employees' visas to the new Kuwaiti subcontractor and falsely accused the Americans of being "runaways and absconders," according to Charles Tolleson, president of Global Linguist Solutions. His company has barred workers from leaving the bases since May 31 to protect them from arrest and imprisonment. 

"We don’t see any hope. We’re dealing with a corrupt company in Kuwait that has fabricated charges against us."  - American citizen trapped on U.S. base in Kuwait.  "My biggest concern is the safety and security of my employees in Kuwait," he said. 

One of the employees, who contacted FoxNews.com Tuesday morning from Camp Buehring, said, "If we leave the base, we could be arrested by the Kuwaiti authorities, jailed or deported."

"We cannot see the doctor even for an emergency," said the woman, who asked that her name not be used. "Everybody here is under stress because a lot of us here need to go home. Our families are worried about us. We need to see our kids... We don’t see any hope. We’re dealing with a corrupt company in Kuwait that has fabricated charges against us."

She said the Al Shora's managing director "cancelled all of our visas here, so we became illegal."

Camp Buehring is in the Kuwaiti desert, about 25 miles south of the Iraqi border. Other employees of Global Linguistics are similarly stuck at Camp Arifjan, another U.S. Army base inside Kuwait.

Al Shora is demanding $22 million from Global Linguistics in order to transfer the employees' visas to the new company, Kuwaiti Resources House, sources said. Under Kuwaiti law, foreigners cannot work in the country unless they are under the sponsorship of a private Kuwaiti company. 

After his company re-bid its contract several months ago and opted to chose the new Kuwaiti company, "Al Shora basically embarked on a campaign to destroy my company," Tolleson said.

"There’s no contract dispute. I don’t even have a contract with them anymore," he said of Al Shora. "If a sponsor is no longer a sponsor, they are required to simply transfer [the visas] to the new sponsor. This happens all the time. They won’t do that, and that violates the terms of their former contract."

A representative from the Kuwaiti prime minister's office said he was not aware of the situation.  "This is the first time I heard about this," the representative, who declined to give his name, told FoxNews.com. "This kind of behavior has never happened."

He had no comment when asked if the Al Shora's managing director was related to Kuwaiti Prime Minister Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah

Tolleson said that when he approached the U.S. military about the situation, "I was told this is my problem."

The office for the U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait referred all inquiries on the matter to the U.S. State Department.

“The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait is aware of the commercial dispute involving a Department of Defense contractor and a local Kuwaiti company," Beth Gosselin, as a State Department spokeswoman, told FoxNews.com. "That dispute has had an impact on a number of private U.S. citizens working in Kuwait. 

"The protection of U.S. citizens overseas is one of our highest priorities," Gosselin added. "The U.S. Embassy is working with the private U.S. citizens and is providing them with appropriate consular assistance. The Embassy continues to monitor the situation closely and is encouraging an immediate resolution to this difficult issue."

At least three of the linguists reportedly spent seven days in a crowded, filthy jail after being caught outside their base. Majdi Abdulghani was detained by police May 9, as he prepared to board a plane on an approved trip to Jordan to visit his sick mother, the military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported.  He spent seven days in jail before being flown back to the U.S., according to the newspaper.  

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/18/captive-in-kuwait-contract-dispute-leaves-100-americans-stranded-on-us-army/#ixzz2WkDytCmP

Update on: Western Employees on Arifjan Sue for Labor Benefits and Win

Original post HERE.  See AmericanGirlsWorld Blog post on this subject HERE. 

The below is outstanding information from American Girl's World blog.  I hope some of my readers will find it useful as well, as I am often asked these types of questions.

Keven L. Barnes says:

April 29, 2013 at 12:49 pm

I work closely with Dr. Al Enezi’s law firm and he is working a number of these cases against Primes who, with the blessing of Camp Arifjan Contracting Officers and Lawyers have allowed the False Claims Act violations to go unaddressed in the form of debarments and suspension of companies who are violating the United States Government Prime contract DFAR regulation 252.7002 LOCAL LABOR LAWS apply.

What applies to Rock Island and Camp Arifjan are RICCO Racketeering laws against conspiracies, fraud, and theft of workers on such a scale as been happening to Americans, British, Australian, and other Western Expats, let alone the Third-Country nationals.

When you have the Department of Justice not investigating racketeering, fraud, the violation of the Competition in Contracting Act, and now Labor violations that date back 8 years – we have ourselves a racketeering that involves the DoD IG and FBI. Who is going to investigate and report to our Congress members the ongoing violations of the Terms and Conditions of the Prime contracts not enforced by Contracting Officers who were given an SF1402 and only have an 8th grade education. I would fully expect that the Lawyers who I believe have a much higher education degree than any Army Contracting officer would realize the difference between defending criminals and upholding the Federal Acquisition Regulations and Kuwait Labor Laws. They apparently have blurred the lines between defense and law. The Kuwait Labor Law applies to all VISA 18 in the passport holders. Visa 14 cannot work – PERIOD and Camp Arifjan has 100 plus violations of that statute alone at any one time.

Call Dr. Al Enezi or write me and I we will discuss your prime contract and its terms about Local Labor Law. All those who had their local labor rights in Kuwait violated should see a Qui Tam lawyer and bring the appropriate lawsuits against these Prime Contractors and file a claim against the Army and the individual contracting officer until finally – there just are no Contracting Officers who violate the Kuwait Labor Laws. Haul them into Kuwait courts. They leave the base, so they can be served papers to appear. ONLY then and investigation into the racketeering of Camp Arifjan and why it appears year after year in the Department of Justice’s report to Congress dating back to 2005 and MAJ JOHN COCKERHAM, MAJ PRESSLEY, and the other Camp Arifjan criminal elements who have joined the long list of 28 kickback artists. http://www.usmilitarycontracting.org will be a portal to capture this other criminal activity of Camp Arifjan.

Good Luck with your cases and don’t forget to take the win to an American attorney to recover damages in the United States system.

keven.barnes@latvianconnectionllc.com

Western Employees on Arifjan Sue for Labor Benefits and Win

The article below appeared on the front page of the Arab Times.

USG contractors working in Kuwait MUST abide by the Kuwait Labor Law or face consequences.  Just because employees are working at a US military installation does not mean that employers get to bend the rules to suit them.  

It is good that the article includes the full name of the lawyer, Musaed J. Al-Riyahi,  that is handling the employees' case.  He has successfully won cases for Westerners fighting for their rights.  More people with similar circumstances can now contact him.  Only wish they had published his contact information!  I just did a quick Google search and couldn't find him.  Why don't these guys at least get on LinkedIn?

The Kuwait Labor Law states that a work week is only 48 hours.  Any time over 48 hours is considered overtime.  No such thang in Kuwait as "exempt" and "non-exempt" employees.  It all the same.

Kuwait Labor Law, Article 64
"…it is forbidden to allow workers to work for more than 48 hours per week or 8 hours a day..."

Article 66

The overtime work should not exceed two hours a day, a maximum of 180 hours a year, three days a week or 90 days a year. The worker shall have the right to prove by any means that the employer required him to perform additional works for an additional period of time. The worker shall also be entitled to a 25 percent increase over his original remuneration for the period of overtime."

I wonder how many employees filed the case.  Interesting.

Bottom line is that either the company has knowingly violated legal labor practices to make more money;  or whoever was in charge of overseeing their contract (compliance/contract management?) did a crap job.

Ultimately, if employees don't do anything about it, unscrupulous companies will get away with it.  The Kuwait Labor Law is available online.  Any employee in Kuwait with a Kuwaiti residency visa is governed under the Kuwait Labor Law.  Get edumacated.

UNTIED.COM

You read it right, ladies and gentlemen. Apparently, there is a whole parody site to United.com listing customer complaints and United Airlines customer service and industry statistics.

"Read all about problems with United: Untied Airlines - Problems with United Airlines. A story in USA Today notes that UAL had the industry's highest rate of passenger complaints to the DOT for all of 2006: 1.36 complaints for every 100,000"

Mean Companies Suck

The other day, a very good friend of mine called me, distraught about her job. I am one of those people who empathize with anyone who is being treated unfairly. She only recently started working at a small company and she has already discovered the main concern of many expats working here in Kuwait: lack of job security. Hire an expat, fire an expat, hire someone else for WAY less money. It usually happens after the Western person has been in Kuwait for about a year. Could be less – depending.

Of course, I am generalizing, but unfortunately, it happens a lot.

It is happening now at a very large logistics company with lots of Americans on staff. The homeys are asked to leave and quietly slip away because they are too worried about rocking the boat and potentially getting themselves into trouble.

My advice to my dear friend - toughen up and always have a Plan B. You can't take it personally (although it is, you have to pretend for a while that it isn't). You have got to network in Kuwait. You have got to know what your options are should something happen to you suddenly. Feel out the market. Find places that you would like to go to work if something happens to your current job. Determine which companies are working on the interesting/profitable projects in your field. Talk to people there. Mingle. Network. Cover your ass.

Know your rights.

All of a sudden, a whole lot of companies are "extending" the 100 day employee probation period – thinking that, should they fire the employee at say 130 days, the employee won't know the difference. By Kuwait Labor Law, a company can ONLY give an employee a 100 day probation period. No more. After 100 days, they are guaranteed rights (like not being terminated a the drop of a dime).

Do you know what happens to your credit cards if you are a Westerner here and lose your job? (Credit cards which you have obtained from the bank where your salary is being deposited into and debited directly from your account each month.) If your salary isn't transferred by EFT to the bank on the usual transfer date, whatever is in your account is immediately taken to cover your credit card (since they are all "secured" cards here). Then, your credit card is cancelled until your new employer provides you with a salary certificate and the first electronic funds transfer transaction takes place. In other words, you will have no money to get back to where ever you came from (unless you have your money in another account or overseas).

Do you know what happens if you are fired and a company doesn't feel like paying you your settlement? You have to take them to court. It may take years to actually receive any money. If you don't know of any good lawyers in Kuwait, you should find out. Establish a relationship with a lawyer just incase. Go have coffee with a lawyer and make friends. Send him/her a card on Eid or special occasions. Make them remember you should anything ever happen.

Plan B!!!!