30,000 Kuwaiti government employees skip work to extend Eid

Ten per cent of Kuwait's government employees either cliaimed illness or simply did not turn up for work to stretch three-day Eid Al Fitr holiday into a nine-day break.

Abu Dhabi // More than 30,000 government workers in Kuwait skipped work on Wednesday and Thursday to extend their Eid holiday into the weekend.

Ten per cent of Kuwait’s 363,000 government employees decided to either claim illness or just not show up to their posts over the past two days to extend the three-day Eid Al Fitr holiday into a nine-day vacation.

Absenteeism at the ministries complex was 40 per cent, the Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas reported.

This was not the first time Kuwait witnessed a post-holiday drop in attendance by government employees. In 2015, 30,000 Kuwaitis skipped the remaining two weekdays that the Eid Al Adha holiday did not cover.

The problem is so widespread that one government worker told The National he was surprised to find many of his colleagues present when he walked into his office at one of the ministries this week.

Hind Al Sabeeh, Kuwait’s minister of social affairs and labour, said that in some government sectors only half of the employees showed up this week.

Kuwait media quoted her as saying the most common way to skip work was getting by getting sick notes from doctors.

Those who failed to show up to work would be called to account, she said.