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Gulf News, Wednesday, Sep 2, 2020 | Muharram 14, 1442

Daytime outdoor labour restrictions lifted from today

Kuwait:

The Public Authority for Manpower announced that as of today (September 1), the daytime outdoor ban has been lifted.

As per the 2015 ministerial law 535, it is prohibited to work outdoors, under the sun, between 11am and 4pm starting from June 1 to August 31.

The spokesperson for the Public Authority for Manpower and the Director of Public Relations and Media department at the Authority, stated that the National Centre for Occupational health and Safety has inspected sites across the country to ensure that project owners adhere to the law.

An inspection team was created to receive complaints about people working outdoors during the prohibited hours. From June 1 to August 31, the National Centre for Occupational Health and Safety found that 503 workers were forced to work under the sun, throughout the three months.

The inspection team also receives complaints from individuals and organizations, that they then proceed to investigate. This year they received 68 complaints.

One of the organizations working to ensure workers’ rights is the Kuwaiti Society for Human Rights. The organization has a workers’ committee that receives complaints from people on social media or over the phone, that they then transfer over to the Public Authority of Manpower for inspection.

In addition, the inspection team visited 333 sites that have violated the law for the first time, thus only receiving a warning. The Public Authority for Manpower usually dispatches a team to re-inspect the site a few days later to ensure workers’ have not returned to work after a warning was filed. The total number of sites that were re-inspected this year came up to 422.

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