The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) to notify 40 expatriate employees that their contracts will be terminated effective July 1, 2018. This step comes in line with Civil Service Commission (CSC) regulations that stipulate replacing expatriate employees in the public sector with national manpower. The local report added that the ministry made the decision and selected the employees to be laid off according to its needs and the number of years a worker has been in service.

CSC rules stipulate that an employee should be terminated (or referred to retirement in case of Kuwaiti workers) should they serve for 35 years or reach the age of 65. Exceptions are made for employees whose services would be needed in their positions such as doctors, as their contracts in this case would be renewed on a yearly basis.

Several ministries have made similar steps in recent weeks after being notified to make efforts to hire more Kuwaiti job seekers as the government hopes to fully ‘Kuwaitize’ the public sector’s labor force within five years.