Ministry of Labor: Non-compliant companies barred from tenders for failing to pay salaries

Al-Jarida has learned that the Public Authority for Manpower will submit the names of companies failing to pay their workers’ monthly salaries to the Central Tenders Committee to bar them from participating in any government tenders or contracts, as a punitive measure against violators, until they resume regular payment of their employees’ wages.

According to Manpower sources, despite positive indicators achieved in this file over recent months—with 93,865 applications submitted by companies through the “Salary Fulfillment System” between January and September last year, representing a 195.6 percent increase compared to the 31,757 applications recorded during the same period last year—First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousif aims to reach “zero” companies with delayed salary payments.

Meanwhile, the Authority stated that it is mandatory for companies operating in the private sector to settle 90 percent of the total salaries of workers registered in their files monthly, in addition to transferring and settling the wages of registered workers for the previous month. It emphasized that violating these two conditions results in restricting certain services provided to companies, including the issuance of work permits and authorizations (excluding renewals), halting the registration of government contracts, assessing basic needs, suspending the issuance of certificates to relevant tendering entities, and stopping the registration of vehicles owned by the company.

In a related development, the Authority outlined the electronic linkage mechanism with the Wage Protection Platform at the Central Bank of Kuwait, which enables the electronic processing of salary files from the employer through to disbursement results. This enhances oversight of salary transfer operations and improves the efficiency of monitoring companies’ compliance.

The Authority clarified that this mechanism begins with the employer uploading the salary file to the bank, which then transmits the data via the Central Bank’s Wage Protection Platform to the Manpower Authority. The Authority verifies whether the data matches the information of workers registered in the file before approving the payment and executing the disbursement by the bank, after which the results are electronically sent to the Authority.

It added that the system aims to strengthen the pre-disbursement verification of salary data, eliminate manual correspondence between banks, and electronically link the Authority to salary transfer results, thereby facilitating the rapid detection of non-compliance with salary disbursement regulations.

Sources indicated that the Authority collects monthly compliance data from companies to build a registry that distinguishes between those regularly paying salaries and those with repeated delays, paving the way for granting the former certain benefits according to ranges currently being prepared.

It noted that this system combines incentives for employers to maintain regular salary payments with monitoring of delayed cases, reflecting the Authority’s approach to enhancing continuous compliance and giving companies the opportunity to complete their procedures and rectify deficiencies before their files are suspended.

It stressed that the improvement in compliance rates represents progress that the Authority seeks to build upon, emphasizing that the fundamental criterion in the system is the extent to which a company fulfills its employees’ monthly wages, aiming to fully address cases of non-compliance.