MP PROPOSES Sweeping CUTS to Worker BENEFITS
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SUBSCRIPTION WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2014 SHAABAN 20, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Cabbies In diplomatic Bahrain fights India ride ignore rule breakthrough, competition, on Binny’s on taxi UK to reopen unrest to remain heroics to beat meters3 Iran embassy7 business21 hub Bangladesh17 MP proposes sweeping Max 44º Min 27º cuts to worker benefits High Tide 04:03 & 14:59 Call to slash leave, indemnity, holidays in private sector Low Tide 09:33 & 22:18 40 PAGES NO: 161200 150 FILS By B Izzak Merchants and employers had strongly opposed that they suffer from working in hazardous and harmful indus- law, but a large number of MPs backed the amendments tries. The proposal also calls to amend article 25 to exempt Sheikh Nasser KUWAIT: In a surprising and perhaps unprecedented and pressed the government to accept them. In his propos- employers from the requirement to establish a nursery if move, MP Nasser Al-Sane yesterday proposed key amend- al, Sane calls for deleting two articles of the 150-article law they employ 50 women and more or a total of 200 workers. ready to face ments to the labor law of 2010, calling for massive cuts to and for amending 11 other articles, all dealing with Sane also proposes to amend article 44 to cut the dis- benefits enjoyed by workers that include cuts in the annual employee benefits, whether they are expatriates or missal notice period from three months under the current investigation leave, end of service indemnity, public holidays and other Kuwaitis. law to just one month for permanent employees and from gains. The previous National Assembly spent years debat- The lawmaker calls for deleting articles 22 and 97. The one month to just two weeks for workers hired on daily By Staff Reporter and Agencies ing drafts after drafts of the labour law in the private sector first prohibits most women from working between 10 at basis. Sane also calls for amending the key article 53 which until it was passed in 2010, which was welcomed as night and 7 in the morning. Exceptions include nurses and deals with end of service indemnity and the way to calcu- KUWAIT: Former premier Sheikh Nasser Al- employee-friendly for the important benefits the law some other professions. Article 97 deals with compensa- late it. Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said yesterday he is included. tion that a worker or his heirs can seek for health conditions Continued on Page 15 ready to face a probe over alleged scandals that have rocked the state. A senior member of the ruling family who left office in Nov 2011 after nearly six years in office, he and another senior official were accused in Fighting erupts near Baghdad a lawsuit filed Monday. “Sheikh Nasser is prepared to answer all the points stated in a lawsuit with com- plete transparency and clarity,” his lawyer, Emad Al- Saif, said in a statement. US sends troops • Indian nurses stranded • Social media blocked The suit was filed by Sheikh Ahmad Fahd Al-Sabah, BAGHDAD: Fighting erupted at the northern approaches another senior ruling family member. The two sheikhs to Baghdad yesterday as the United Nations warned Iraq are cousins and nephews of HH the Amir. Sheikh is in danger of disintegrating in the face of the assault by Nasser resigned from office after massive street Sunni Arab militants. Washington deployed some 275 mil- protests over corruption charges that 13 MPs had itary personnel to protect its embassy in Baghdad, the received millions of dollars in bribes. Prime Minister first time it has sent troops to Iraq since it withdrew its HH Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah also filed a suit forces at the end of 2011 after a bloody and costly inter- Monday asking the attorney general to investigate vention launched in 2003. It was also mulling air strikes “allegations of money laundering, abuse of public against the militants, who are led by the jihadist Islamic funds and (financial) dealing with Israel.” State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but include loyalists of The government also asked acting justice minister now-executed Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah to file another A relative calm in Baghdad - ostensibly as militants lawsuit against opposition leaders for the accusations have focused on their northern assault - was shattered by they made at a public rally last week against current a string of bombings that left 17 people dead, while the and former officials. Last week, the judicial council bodies of 18 soldiers and police were found near the city filed two lawsuits against opposition figures for alle- of Samarra, all shot in the head and chest. Since the insur- gations against them and against a Twitter account gents launched their lightning assault on June 9, they accusing them of accepting bribes. Corruption allegations were also made by promi- have captured Mosul, a city of two million people, and a nent opposition figures at a public rally last week. The big chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching Audit Bureau, the country’s accounting watchdog, towards the capital. has been asked to launch a separate investigation The offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of into the allegations while the newly established people and sent jitters through world oil markets as the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority said Monday it will militants have advanced ever nearer Baghdad leaving the start its work by investigating the case. Shiite-led government in disarray. Officials said yesterday The case, described by some analysts and the that militants briefly held parts of the city of Baquba, just opposition as the most serious corruption issue in the 60 km from the capital. They also took control of most of country, has opened the doors for wild speculations Tal Afar, a strategic Shiite-majority town between Mosul DAHUK, Iraq: Iraqis fleeing fighting between security forces and militants in their hometown of Tal Afar about what could happen next. and the border with Syria, where ISIL also has fighters arrive in a car at the Germawa camp for displaced Iraqis in a hot dusty plain in this largely-autonomous engaged in that country’s three-year-old civil war. Continued on Page 15 Kurdish area 430 km northwest of Baghdad yesterday. — AP Continued on Page 15 Qatar top investor in Kuwait US nabs ringleader KUWAIT: Qatar ranks first among nations with enables the government to find impediments to press conference that FDI in 2012 in Kuwait was of Benghazi attack foreign direct investments (FDI) in Kuwait, with more FDI in the country and helps it in charting divided among a number of sectors, the biggest total investments in 2012 topping KD 1. 9 billion, out future labor policies. She added a meeting of which was the telecom sector with KD 1.8 bil- WASHINGTON: The United States said concluded a survey by the Kuwait Central will be held today of a number of the country’s lion, followed by the investment sector with yesterday it had captured a suspected Statistical Bureau. Total FDI in Kuwait till end of distinguished economic organizations where over KD 597 million, and other sectors like bank- ringleader of the 2012 attack on the US 2012 came to almost three billion dinars, results of the survey on FDI and obstacles that ing, insurance and funds. Bahrain was the sec- diplomatic compound in Benghazi, according to the survey, the bureau’s director hamper it will be thoroughly discussed. ond after Qatar in the FDI rankings in Kuwait, Libya, a raid that killed four Americans Maryam Al-Aqeel told a press conference. She Kuwait University professor Nayef Al- followed by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, including the US ambassador and ignit- said the survey on foreign investment in Kuwait Shemmeri told KUNA on the sidelines of the he said. — KUNA ed a political firestorm in Washington. President Barack Obama said in a state- ment he had authorized the operation in Libya on Sunday in which US troops, working with law enforcement person- nel, captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah. “Since the deadly attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, I have made it a priority to find and bring to justice PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania: US those responsible for the deaths of four President Barack Obama speaks brave Americans,” Obama said, adding about the capture of a Libyan mili- that Khatallah would “face the full tant suspected of killing Americans weight of the American justice system.” in Benghazi during his visit to Continued on Page 15 TechShop yesterday. — AP Kuwait oil tanker rescues migrants KUWAIT: The Kuwait Oil Tanker with international maritime agreements Company (KOTC) has concluded rescu- and conventions on saving lives at sea, ing a large number of migrants whose said Sheikh Talal. boat capsized off the coast of Italy, said The tanker had to change its course KOTC CEO Shiekh Talal Al-Khaled Al- in order to save the lives of a total of 536 Sabah yesterday. In a statement to people, described as foreign refugees, KUNA, Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Sabah who were later dropped off on Italian said one of the company’s tankers, Al- shores, said Sheikh Talal, adding that Salmi, was bound for Italy in the early one person suffering from diabetes died. hours of the day when it received an Most of the people rescued were urgent distress call from Italian coast- women and children, some requiring guards regarding illegal immigrants critical medical attention. KOTC provid- whose boat had capsized at sea. The ed the refugees with shelter, food and crew of the tanker proceeded to imme- medical attention, reflecting Kuwait’s diately contact KOTC’s umbrella compa- outstanding commitment to interna- ny, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), tional maritime laws and humanitarian FORTALEZA, Brazil: Brazil’s defender Thiago Silva (down) vies with Mexico’s forwards Giovani Dos Santos (right) and Oribe Peralta dur- which authorized the go-ahead in line efforts, said Sheikh Talal.