Kuwait’s Public Authority of Manpower (PAM) has recently issued a new decision - Opens in new tab allowing migrant workers to change employers before completing one year of service if they face employer abuse or negligence. The decision gives workers a formal legal path to complain to PAM, prove employer misconduct or abuse, and transfer sponsorships.
The new Administrative Decision No. 680 of 2026 amends Article 7 of Decision No. 842 of 2015 governing work transfer rules. It allows migrant workers to change sponsorship after submitting a labour complaint and following an investigation by PAM, which may approve the transfer of the worker’s permit to another employer before one year has passed, whenever one of the following cases applies:
- The employer fails to issue or complete the worker’s residency or work permit procedures due to negligence, not because of any fault by the worker.
- The employer’s file is suspended or restricted, preventing the completion of residency procedures.
- A false or malicious absconding report has been filed against the worker, or absconding procedures are misused to harm the worker or block their rights.
- It is proven that the employer violated any of the provisions stipulated in Article 48 of the Labour Law, which allows workers to terminate contracts if the employer fails to comply with the employment contract or the law, including in cases involving assault against the worker.
- The employment contract ends due to bankruptcy or the permanent closure of the company, as defined under Article 50 of the Labour Law.
The new decision also gives PAM additional enforcement powers. PAM is empowered now to take administrative action against defaulting employers, including suspending or restricting the issuance of new work permits, temporarily halting recruitment activities, or refusing applications to recruit additional workers until the violations are corrected and the status of affected workers is resolved.
Previously, although provisions of the Labour Law, such as the above-mentioned Article 48, explicitly gave workers the right to terminate employment contracts without notice while preserving their entitlement to dues and end-of-service indemnity, the immigration regulations governing transfers in cases of labour abuse were less clear. In this regard, the new regulation helps bring the labour and immigration frameworks more in sync.
Kuwait has some of the most restrictive job-transfer rules among GCC countries. The government typically relaxes these restrictions only during periods of labour market strain, such as recruitment bans or crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and regional conflicts.
Last month, Kuwait’s PAM announced - Opens in new tab that migrant workers recruited from abroad in certain “restricted sectors” would be permitted to transfer to other sectors under specific conditions, with the consent of their original employer, between 1 May and 30 June 2026. The affected sectors include small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the industrial, agricultural, fishing, and livestock sectors.
According - Opens in new tab to local media reports, as of 23 May, PAM received 11,654 transfer requests from migrant workers seeking to move from these restricted sectors to other sectors of the labour market.
