Muhammad Afzaz / Al-Jazeera Net correspondents

From Kuwait to the Sultanate of Oman, passing through Bahrain, Qatar, the Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, the huge financial reserves did not help the oil-rich Gulf countries in facing the repercussions of the Corona Virus crisis, so the biggest impact of this crisis fell on the workers and employees, from whom the lucky salaries decreased, while other work contracts were terminated.

Al-Jazeera Net correspondents monitored the employment conditions in the six Gulf states in light of the Corona pandemic, and the measures taken against them.

A number of observers considered the procedures for  reducing salary and granting employees open leave in Kuwait in violation of the law (Al-Jazeera)

Kuwait .. End contracts and reduce salaries
Dozens of companies in Kuwait have approved austerity measures that began with “zeroing” paid vacations for all expatriate workers, passing through the reduction of the salaries of their employees by rates ranging between 30% and 65%, some of them for two months and others for three and four months, until ending the employees ’contracts.

Al-Jazeera Net correspondent Mahmoud Al-Kafrawi monitored many stories of ending work and reducing salaries against the background of the economic crisis, even in companies that did not stop their work in light of the current conditions.

The procedures for reducing the salary and granting employees leave without a monthly wage came in violation of the law, as Kuwaiti Labor Law 6 of 2010 stipulates in Article 28 that “whether the work contract is of a fixed-term or indefinite period, the employee’s wage may not be reduced during the period of the contract’s validity and is considered null and void never".

Amendment of the Labor Law Ahli under Alrahenhetaoualhak conditions for the employer to negotiate with the worker rejected the salary altogether, the amendment to the rights of workers and will result in opening the doors of Al - Ahli Alantqasat sector resulting in the diversion of national labor with the lack of job security
# Mmnoa_tkhvad_alroatb pic.twitter.com/SRLqnuVLBv

- EQUATE Syndicate (@EquateUnionNews) May 4, 2020

Governmentally, the Kuwaiti cabinet approved a draft law a few days ago in principle to add a new article to the labor law that allows companies to negotiate with their employees to reduce their salaries during crises and disasters, as well as grant them leave with less pay.

The approval of the Council of Ministers sparked a wave of parliamentary and popular anger, as many deputies confirmed their refusal to violate the rights of national workers in the private sector, which resulted in the government withdrawing the project to make amendments to it.

Jamal al-Fadli, Secretary of the Union of Workers in the Private Sector, told Al-Jazeera Net correspondent that they have received since the beginning of the crisis many complaints related to forcing employees to leave on vacation without salary or deducting part of it, stressing that the union rejects the government move towards amending the labor law.

According to Al-Fadhli, the number of Kuwaitis in the private sector reached 74 thousand during 2018 before retreating in December 2019 to about 69 thousand, while the number of expatriates in the sector is estimated at about one million and 650 thousand employees.

And colleague Abdullah Al-Kandari submitted a proposal to exchange [additional labor support] monthly for workers in the private sector in the third and fifth chapters. # You have the right to know # National Assembly_pic.twitter.com/u0AqIzTvfZ

- Osama Al-Shaheen (@OALSHAHEEN) May 7, 2020

"They also received many complaints, mostly for workers in the catering sector, related to salary cuts or the arbitrary termination of the contract," President of the Kuwaiti Society for Human Rights Ingredients, Yusef Al Saqer, told Al Jazeera Net.

In the opinion of the Secretary-General of the Kuwaiti Progressive Movement, Ahmad al-Din, the proposed amendment contradicts the principles of public order, as it abrogates the acquired rights and imposes what may be called compliance contracts, which is a surprising government step after the government previously announced a plan in March to support the private sector through soft loans and credit facilities. Different.

Bahrain .. Decisions paving the way for layoffs
in Bahrain The career situation under Corona and the drop in oil prices were more clear after the Bahraini Cabinet decided to reduce the budget for expenditures for ministries and government agencies subject to and not subject to central regulations by 30%, unless the public interest requires otherwise.

The government decision also provides for rescheduling a number of construction and consulting projects to accommodate emergency and emerging expenses to address the spread of the Corona virus, as well as to amend the payroll and job benefits regulation to ensure this budget cut, in addition to not extending the service of any employee over the age of sixty.

The Bahraini government decision coincided with a large number of companies and institutions in Bahrain informing their employees of the decision to end services, which in some companies reached 50% of its workforce, which prompted the head of the Free Trade Union of Bahrain Trade Unions Yaqoub Yusuf Muhammad to demand the development of mechanisms for dealing With these conditions to which workers in Bahrain are exposed, stressing that the employer is not entitled to dismiss the worker due to these exceptional circumstances.

Lawyer Al Saad: Without the support package, the situation would have become very difficult  (Al Jazeera)

Qatar .. relieve pressure and
in Qatar, the Corona pandemic also affected the employment situation in the country, especially as it was accompanied by a sharp drop in oil prices, which prompted many public and private institutions to consider ending the services of a large number of jobs to reduce the financial pressure that occurred in this period of time.

The biggest impact was on the private sector in the state, where the total or partial closure of a number of companies and the lack of the income of those companies affected the first thought in reducing salaries, as well as ending the services of a number of employees, according to the Al Jazeera reporter.

Qatar Airways has had a share in the reduction, as an internal memo seen by Al Jazeera Net revealed that the national carrier will have to end the services of a number of its employees due to the collapse of air traffic due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Qatar Airways says in its note that it cannot keep the current numbers of employees and will have to lay off a large number of jobs.

In a similar message received by Qatar Petroleum employees stating that the Corona pandemic and the drop in oil prices will lead to lower manpower levels except for Qatari employees, but that will be after a careful process to achieve a balance between safety and business continuity.

The letter emphasized that the current economic situation makes the company take steps to reduce the cost, and this is what has already been done in the past weeks. The company was able to reduce the cost, but still needs to reduce more.

Lawyer Rashid bin Saad Al Saad, a member of the advisory office of the Qatar Financial Center, believes that the procedures for reducing working hours, closing some different activities and the state of economic stagnation have greatly affected the employment in the market.

Al Saad adds, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that public and private sector companies have taken three tracks in dealing with this crisis. The first track was the agreement between the worker and the employer to reduce salaries during an interim period extending from three months to six months at most, while others marched to the agreement to give the worker an annual paid vacation and followed by unpaid leave while providing the basic needs of housing and food, while The difficult choice that some people resort to is to end the services of a number of workers inside the company or institution in order to be able to continue.

He explains that the steps taken by these companies and institutions were in accordance with the standards recently issued by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs in Qatar.

Al Saad stressed that had it not been for the package announced by the Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the situation would have become very difficult, as the package, which amounts to 75 billion riyals in addition to his instructions to the Development Bank to support the private sector with loans to pay salaries and rents, saved many companies and preserved many Jobs, and had a role in maintaining the national economy in general.

Hundreds of companies in the UAE cut salaries of employees due to the crisis of Corona (Reuters)

UAE .. open vacations The UAE
Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation called on companies not to terminate the services of their employees or reduce their salaries without their consent, and to resort to consensual procedures such as leave without pay under the current circumstances.

However, this did not prevent hundreds of companies from reducing the salaries of their employees by rates that sometimes exceeded the 75% threshold, according to Al-Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Al-Hayek.

Among the companies that initiated the reduction of workers ’wages are Emaar Properties, the largest listed real estate company in the Emirates, Etihad Airways, owned by the Abu Dhabi government, and Emirates Airlines, flydubai and others.

“His school has reduced his and his colleagues’ salaries by 30%, ”Qusai, a teacher who works for a private Emirati school, told Al-Jazeera Net, expressing his fear that the rate of reduction would increase if the crisis affected more than that.

For her part, Um Yara, who works in one of the private clinics in Dubai, told Al-Jazeera Net, "Although my salary is very modest, they forced me to take half a month of unpaid leave and therefore I am currently receiving half of the salary. God is the helper."

As for Abdul Hamid, who works in a Dubai hotel, he tells Al-Jazeera Net about the mechanism of their discounts by saying, "About three months ago, the hotel started deducting five days from the salary of each employee as a first stage. At a later stage, things evolved to more than five days, and they are preparing now." To give 85% of employees open leave for approximately three months, provided that a small portion of the salary, not exceeding 25%, is paid during these vacations, which may end in the termination of services. "

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Saudi Arabia ... a wave of controversy
A few days ago, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan announced in press statements that his country would take "possibly painful" economic measures to overcome the repercussions of the Corona pandemic.

He stated that the economic stimulus packages approved by the Kingdom earlier in March were aimed at preserving the jobs of citizens in the private sector and continuing to provide basic services.

However, the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat revealed in return that the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development issued a decision to allow the reduction of salaries in the private sector to 40% for a period of six months with the possibility of terminating contracts after that, in light of the Corona pandemic.

The decision sparked a wave of controversy and resentment on social networking platforms, where Saudi journalist Mohammed Al-Bishi said in a tweet on his Twitter account, "The Saudi government has a wide area of ​​expenses and expenditures that can be postponed or reduce spending on them or seized without the need to resort to reducing the salaries of employees The state or stop spending on social welfare programs. "

In turn, the tweet, Mona Al-Zahrani, said, "The ministers (who) who are among them of benefit and the members of the soup council - should be reduced - referring to the Shura Council - and the princes' allocations should be stopped because the people no longer stayed in their pockets."

For his part, Abu Khaled confirmed in a special statement to Al Jazeera Net that the restaurant company he works for - he did not want to disclose its name - in Riyadh, reduced the salaries of employees by up to 50%, "and ended the services of dozens of his colleagues at work.

The condition of Mohamed - a Lebanese who works in one of the major money transfer companies in the Saudi capital as well - is no better than his predecessor, as he said in a special statement to Al Jazeera Net that "the situation has become very difficult and today we fear fear - ending services - at any moment."

Young Omani working in the field of laboratories (Omani press)
There is no harm to citizens

In mid-April, the government approved a package of measures and facilities to support the private sector and support its workforce, with the aim of sustaining the sector’s business and adapting to the economic crisis.

These measures came after a number of companies started laying off employees or deducting wages at rates that reached 30% since the start of the pandemic's impact in the Sultanate.

The number of workers in the private sector of Omanis is about 262 thousand workers, and the proportion of foreign workers constitutes about 79% of the total workers in the Sultanate of Oman, while the number of workers who have lost their jobs has not been officially announced yet.

According to the government package, private sector institutions are obligated to maintain the continued work of the Omani workforce and not to end its services.

With regard to companies that closed their business as a result of the pandemic, the government directed to compel companies to pay workers ’wages and urged them to permanently deport the non-Omani workforce provided that these institutions commit to pay all their dues.

The package includes facilities to support the lower-paid Omani workforce, including postponing the payment of bank loans and financing loans, postponing the payment of electricity bills until the end of next June, and appending those who are entitled to them according to the income category of the beneficiaries of the National Fuel Support Card.

With the aviation sector incurred negative results due to the effects of the Corona pandemic, the Omani Aviation Group announced a reduction in employee wages by varying proportions, in some grades, reaching 30% for a period of only three months, and earlier, Al Salam Air Company announced a reduction in employee wages by different rates.