KUWAIT: Hoursafter airport employees revealed plans to stage a strike in protest of 'unpaidallowances,' Director of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) YousifAl-Fauzan announced yesterday unifying the allowances of some staff membersworking shifts at Kuwait International Airport departments. Fauzan said theCivil Service Commission (CSC) issued a resolution on Thursday explaining thatshifts would be of eight hours each and every air traffic control staff memberwill work morning, afternoon and evening shifts on three consecutive days,followed by two days off.
Fauzan addedairport staff will work the same eight hours for three consecutive daysfollowed by one day off instead of the old system of working a full 24 hoursfollowed by 48 hours off. Earlier yesterday, DGCA employees' syndicate stressedthat it will proceed with plans to go on strike tomorrow. The syndicate'schairman Jaber Al-Azmi said the CSC only approved allowances for air trafficcontrol staff and that the syndicate insists on unified allowances for allstaff members working shifts. However, the union did not release a statementafter Fauzan's announcement, or comment whether they still plan to stage theirstrike or not.
Students'allowances
Secretary generalof the National Union of Kuwaiti Students in the United States of America (NUKSUSA) Ali Al-Ghanem said the Ministry of Higher Education agreed to increasescholarship students' allowances and contacted the finance ministry in thisregard. Similarly, Ghanem's counterpart in the United Kingdom, Nayef Al-Alatti,announced the same for students studying in the UK.
Separately,Education Minister Hamed Al-Azmi ordered an immediate investigation over asocial media video showing a teacher allegedly assaulting a student, andstrongly rejected any leniency towards such violations. Additionally, theministry emphasized in a post on its official Twitter account its totalrejection of assaulting students at any educational facility.
Expats' contracts
Responding toparliamentary complaints, the Public Authority for Manpower stressed that itoperates according to law number 6/2010 and its amendments pertaining businessowners and the assessment of their needs. The manpower authority also stressedthat it fully abides by the CSC resolution concerning replacing expats withcitizens in government jobs, adding that contracts of hundreds of expats hadbeen terminated this year.
Cultural center
The Farwaniyacommittee at the Municipal Council is due to discuss a number of topics in thisweek's agenda, including building a cultural and educational center for theBohra community in Ardiya and a parking lot in Omariya.
Housing issue
MP OmarAl-Tabtabaei said that his grilling motion against the minister of public workswas the fruit of hard work by a large group of citizens over a common majorconcern in their lives - housing. Tabtabaei added that citizens have to waitfour or five years to get a house. "The real achievement is to givecitizens their house keys instead of the deeds," he stressed, pointing outthat citizens are currently paying KD 700 in monthly rent, which overburdensKuwaiti families.
By A Saleh