The Foreign Service Journal, September 2016

38 SEPTEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL employer forfeits a labor certificate and the ability to hire a replacement employee, creating a bonded labor situation. You Can’t Go Home Again For many TCN employees, returning home is not a viable option. Some Palestinians have never even been to what they consider their home country, while those from Somalia or Syria must watch from afar as their countries are caught in the night- mare of a civil war. Others have accumulated significant debts and are not allowed to leave their GCC host country until they have paid them. These employees are effectively trapped: unhappy with their jobs, unable to make ends meet or reduce their debt, and separated from family for long periods. It is not uncommon for LE staff to comment that life in these places is not what they had bargained for, and now they are stuck. Low attrition rates in GCC posts reflect the restrictive kafala system, not job satisfaction. For all these reasons, prevailing practice in GCC countries is equivalent to labor exploitation, and has led to serious TIP con- cerns and negative findings in official State Department reports. (In 2015, Kuwait was a Tier III country in the Trafficking in Per- sons report, while Saudi Arabia and Qatar are ranked on the Tier II Watchlist, and Bahrain, the UAE and Oman are Tier II.) Even if the department uses only organizations that do not engage in trafficking abuses for comparison—e.g., other Western diplomatic missions, the United Nations and reputable multi- national corporations—prevailing wages are still influenced by the artificial wage depression created by kafala. So by relying on prevailing practice to set LE staff compensation, we are benefit- ing from the same labor exploitation that we oppose as a matter of U.S. foreign policy. In 2015, after four years with no wage increases and the high inflation common in the GCC, many members of our LE staff were in dire financial circumstances. Unable to afford living in these places, some staff resorted to illegally sharing housing with multiple families. Others chose to split their families, sending spouses and children back to their home countries. Some have moved to distant towns, adding hours to their daily commute. In Kuwait, 91 LE staff members (almost 30 percent of all embassy staff) had been forced to send their spouse and chil- dren back to their home country in order to move into cheaper, shared accommodation and save on living expenses. Not only was their standard of living dropping, but they found themselves alone, increasingly unhappy and, ultimately, less productive. At the beginning of 2015, 70 percent of LE staff members in Kuwait were living below the poverty level as defined by the government of Kuwait; 58 percent were making less than the U.S. poverty level, even though the cost of living is much higher here than in the United States. Yet despite our best efforts, prevailing practice—not the cost of living—continued to drive LE staff com- pensation policy for the department. And since the data showed we were already paying our staff “above average,” no raise was authorized. Embassy Kuwait Speaks Out Under the leadership of Ambassador Douglas Silliman and Deputy Chief of Mission Joey Hood, Embassy Kuwait coordi- nated an effort among posts in GCC countries to request Public Interest Determinations that would create or enhance allow- ances for LE staff, beyond prevailing practice. We issued a joint cable in January 2015, cleared by six ambassadors, outlining the failure of prevailing practice at GCC posts. To support that effort, each mission collected data on rising housing, education and transportation costs, and documented host-government policies that disadvantage TCN employees. Political and economic sections also drafted cables outlining the failures of the kafala system, its disproportionate impact on expatriate workers and the rising cost of living overall. The Near Eastern Affairs Bureau’s executive office engaged with HR/OE, the Foreign Service Director General and the under secretary for management to make the case. Ultimately, the department approved PIDs and implemented additional allowances. At Embassy Kuwait, the result was an average increase of 22 percent in total compensation for local employees, plus education allowances for employees with school-aged children. Thanks to the new allowances, families of LE staff have begun to return to Kuwait. Employee morale, State should establish minimum standards, based on the cost of living and poverty guidelines, for compensating LE staff members—regardless of prevailing practice.