KUWAIT (ILO News) - In response to an official request from Kuwait’s Public Authority of Manpower (PAM), a delegation from the International Labour Organization in the Arab States participated in a workshop dedicated to the end-of-service indemnity system (EOSI) in the country.

The delegation was composed of Luca Pellerano, senior social protection specialist, Lea Bou Khater, social protection technical officer (ILO ROAS), Jaber al-Ali, Kuwait country coordinator, Siham Nuseibeh, technical officer, (ILO Kuwait), and Jens Christian Stougaard, Founder and CEO of HaNoLo Analytics.

The two-day workshop was hosted by Kuwait’s General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (GSSCPD) in coordination with PAM. The workshop was inaugurated by Dr. Khaled Mahdi the Secretary-General of the GSSCPD and attended by Acting Deputy Director General of PAM Dr. Fahad Al-Murad. The workshop witnessed the participation of several stakeholders including the Public Institution for Social Security, Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Kuwait Civil Service Commission, and the Kuwait Central Statistical Bureau.

The workshop aimed to inform dialogue around the limitations of current EOSI schemes, and involved workers, employers and relevant government entities in Kuwait in the identification of appropriate policy solutions in line with international standards and best practices.

In general, the EOSI system is often criticized for providing insufficient and unreliable protection to workers, for placing the financial burden on employers and for lacking solidarity in financing. Rather than pooling risks, individual employers are financially responsible. Employers that do not set aside sufficient resources for EOSI benefits face liquidity risks at payout and, in cases of bankruptcy, workers are left unprotected. Effective access to EOSI is also hindered by a lack of effective grievance mechanisms, and access to justice is limited for the most vulnerable workers.

Following the COVID-19 crisis, several GCC countries have accelerated reforms of the EOSI system. The mass layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with an economic contraction, leading to liquidity issues for companies, and jeopardizing EOSI payments to migrant workers who lost their jobs.

A recent ILO policy paper Reforming end-of-service indemnity for migrant workers in Member States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) analyses EOSI schemes in the GCC countries and proposes policy reform solutions in line with core principles enshrined in international social security standards. It aims at informing dialogue around the limitations of current EOSI schemes, and involving workers, employers and governments in the GCC in the identification of appropriate policy options for reforms at national and regional level.

The ILO has renewed efforts to advance the agenda of extension of social protection to migrant works in the GCC, in the context of the project Extending Social Protection to Migrant Workers: Exploratory Research and Policy Dialogue in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries.