Around 31,000 Employees Took 2 Days Sick Leaves After Eid Holidays

Around 31,000 employees took sick leaves on Wednesday and Thursday after the Eid Al-Fitr holidays last week, reports Al- Nahar daily quoting a reliable source. According to the source, “the rules and regulations will be strictly applied to deal with any unexcused absence from work.

It was ridiculous that senior officials and heads of departments reported for work while the junior employees were absent.” It has also been reported that an ad-hoc committee will be formed to investigate fake sick leaves which will also pave way for holding liable the doctors proven to have abused their position to issue bogus medical certificates. In a related development, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Al-Subaih has warned that legal and administrative measures will be taken against public sector employees who were absent after the Eid Al-Fitr.

The country announced three days Eid holiday – Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but thousands of employees took Wednesday and Thursday off before the weekend to enjoy a nine-day holiday. Al-Subaih asserted, “Those who wanted to rest and extended their Eid holiday to nine days while people were keen on processing administrative transactions should retire and rest. Salaries are public funds and I cannot tolerate abuses. Those who did not report for work will be held accountable.”

Reports revealed that several offices were empty due to high level of absenteeism among State employees. It can be recalled that in July 2015 around 30,000 public sector employees took sick leaves during the remaining days of the week after the Eid holiday.

At the time, a source from the Civil Service Commission (CSC) disclosed that employees from various ministries and government institutions had their sick leave forms signed by doctors in public and private hospitals, allowing them not to report for work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Therefore, the sick leaves extended the Eid holiday that started on a Friday by five days, including the weekend off. The CSC then announced conducting a thorough investigation into sick leaves to determine their validity, assess compliance with regulations and identify those who should be held responsible.

The probe included checking patients’ health records and names of doctors who signed the sick leave forms. Several Kuwaitis have developed the habit of reporting sick two or three days proceeding or following Eid or official holidays in a bid to extent their days off and travel abroad.

“However, the extremely high number of sick leaves has prompted the CSC to launch an investigation. The commission must make sure that public interest is protected and then ask the Ministry of Health to take legal measures against doctors who did not respect ethics and abused the system by issuing bogus sick leave forms, which is tantamount to forging official documents,” the source from CSC revealed.

 

SOURCE : ARABTIMES

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