Mahmoud Kafrawi - Kuwait
The Kuwaiti government, represented by the Ministry of Social Affairs, seeks to "supervise" the supervisory functions in the country's cooperative sector, which represents about 10% of the jobs in that sector.
Around 72 cooperative societies (each branch has branches in its own regions and the smallest, followed by six branches and the largest of which 28 branches) are spread throughout Kuwait. These associations form a third wing to support the national economy as well as the public and private sectors. It was established in the 1950s as a civil sector with its own funds And subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The establishment of associations at the time was to ensure food security for the country and to control artificial price increases sometimes.
The experiment witnessed several developments until the promulgation of Law No. 20 of 1962, which regulated the work of the cooperative sector. In 1971, the Union of Cooperative Societies was established, which regulates the work of the sector through an elected union. The sales of associations currently amount to about one billion dinars (3.3 billion dollars) .
A recent census of the Civil Information Authority showed that the percentage of expatriates reaches 70% of the total population of more than 4 million and 760 thousand people, while the unemployment rate among Kuwaitis 6.4%.
Standby timeout
According to the head of the Federation of Associations Khaled Al-Hudaiban, the associations have been given time to prepare for the "Takweet" supervisory posts, which ended in December. This trend has been in effect since January 2019. It targets about 2,500 posts at the level of associations for administrative levels, His deputy, the commercial manager, department heads, market managers and branch managers.
Al-Haydban confirmed to Al-Jazeera Net that the Union supports this step in order to provide more jobs for Kuwaitis to reduce the waiting period required by the graduate until he receives the role from the Civil Service Bureau (responsible for the nomination of those wishing to obtain a government job for different parties) and to reduce the number of unemployment in the country .
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The State has formed a tripartite committee of the Federation and the Ministry of Affairs and the restructuring program to coordinate with the associations in this regard. The applicant obtains a salary from his work, in addition to supporting the national manpower provided by the restructuring program to those who do not work in the government sector to encourage them to engage in the private sector .
The salaries of Kuwaiti workers in the societies range between 300 and 2000 dinars (about 900 and 6500 dollars) depending on the nature of the job and the conditions of each association. The salary scale of each association depends on the annual sales volume.
Job placement
While the government plan is to complete the "tweeting" of the cooperative jobs at the end of the year, Al-Hudayban asserts that the associations have gone a long way in settling between six hundred and eight hundred jobs. It is expected that this task will be completed by the end of next Ramadan, In reality.
The government's desire faces many obstacles, most notably the nature of the work in cooperatives, which is divided into two morning and evening periods per employee, a long period of work compared to the governmental time (7 hours starting at 7 am and ending at 2 pm), as well as concessions in the governmental sector, Allowances and special staff and multiple leave, while the salary of associations is a fixed amount.
Among the differences is the nature of lobbying for profits compared to government work in which the employee does not often face similar situations. The chairman of the Mushrif Cooperative Society Abdul Rahman al-Qadeeri confirms that it makes the cooperative sector a sector of national employment, especially that some of these young people They have a constant fear of job stability in the cooperative sector, with the boards changing from time to time according to the outcome of the elections.
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Al-Qadeeri said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that there are real and existing concerns. Some associations may be subject to freezing or deportation in light of the results of the elections, which are always subject to interests and relations.
Expensive polarization
While Al-Qudairi agrees with those who say that the national component is currently working on cooperatives, he stresses that the experience needs to be evaluated and reconsidered to find out the negatives and the positives, in particular that the national cadres qualified to fill these posts are scarce, making attracting competent ones expensive.
He pointed out that the national component constitutes 10% of the total jobs in the Musharraf Society by about 70 jobs, including ten positions have been housed since the government's recent trend.
According to official statistics issued last December, 360,000 employees were employed by 71% of government employees. The country currently places severe restrictions on the recruitment of non-Kuwaitis in the government sector. The appointment of expatriates has been suspended since 2017, Such as doctors, teachers and judges, while the private sector employs about 1.7 million people, including only 70,000 citizens.
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While the head of the Da'iyah Cooperative Society, Mohammad Marafi, confirms the association's commitment to the decision, it confirms that there is no demand for Kuwaiti youth to work in cooperative jobs, for example by announcing an association of 14 vacant positions, which are offered to only two of those wishing to work.
This is an idea that has not been accepted by the society as required so far, as well as the need for workers to greater guarantees to accept these jobs, especially that the change of the board of directors of an association may be To terminate the service of any staff member who is not accepted by the new Board.
Jumana Al-Shatti, a university student who was appointed seven months ago at the Musharraf Association, believes that working on two periods is not a problem per se, pointing out that the nature of work in cooperatives is serious and requires a constant commitment to reverse the more lenient government sector.
Her colleague Hessa Al-Eid confirmed that she left the government after nine years to work in the cooperative sector recently in the interest of further development, noting the need for the sector to raise awareness of the jobs available in it as it did with her. Work in associations near their homes.