KD 300 fee for SME worker transfers after one year
Kuwait has made significant changes to its labor policies for older expatriate workers. Sheikh Fahad Yousef Saud Al-Sabah, the Acting Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and Minister of Interior, has decided to cancel Article 1 of the Public Authority for Manpower’s decision No. 294/2023. This provision had specifically targeted expatriate workers aged 60 and above with high school diplomas or lower, requiring them to pay an additional annual fee of 250 Kuwaiti dinars and obtain an irrevocable comprehensive health insurance policy to renew their work permits. The cancellation of this provision marks a major shift in how Kuwait manages older foreign workers in its labor market.
According to sources from the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM), the minister made this decision after PAM’s Board of Directors approved the cancellation of the policy that allowed this group of workers to renew their work permits annually by paying the prescribed fees. With this change, the system will return to its previous state, allowing workers aged 60 and above with non-university degrees to renew or transfer their work permits to another employer without the need to pay fees that could total up to KD 900, which included KD 500 for annual health insurance, KD 250 for the work permit, and other associated costs. This decision also removes the requirement for workers in this category to hold a university degree in order to transfer or renew their work permits.
In addition, the minister’s decision amended Article 14 of ministerial decision No. 9/2016, which relates to regulations for workers in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The amendment allows a worker employed in an SME to be transferred to another company within the same sector with the employer’s approval after one year from the issuance of the work permit. However, the transfer of such workers within the same sector and under the same employer’s file can be done without meeting the one-year requirement, provided the prescribed fee of KD 300 is paid for transferring the worker before the one-year period has passed.
The decision also cancels the second clause of Article 1 of ministerial decision No. 57/A/2016, allowing workers hired in the government contract sector and registered under the main employer’s file to transfer to work outside that sector. It also permits the transfer of workers from the “distinguished lists” sector to work outside that sector. The sources confirmed that this decision will take effect from the date of its publication in the official gazette.