Office Agreement

This agreement governs how a recruitment office lists its workers and services on the Makhdoom platform and receives bookings through it. The owner of the office accepts it electronically on behalf of the office, and it applies to everyone who uses the office account, including managers and staff.

1. Parties and acceptance

1.1 First party: the operator of the Makhdoom platform: Makhdoom, referred to as "the platform".

1.2 Second party: the recruitment office that holds the account on the platform, referred to as "the office".

1.3 The person who accepts this agreement declares that they are the owner of the office or its authorised signatory and have authority to bind the office. The platform records the acceptance electronically, with the name and role of the person accepting, the office, the version number, the date and time and the network address. These records are evidence of the acceptance.

1.4 The office is responsible for everyone it gives a seat in its account and for everything done from the account.

1.5 The Privacy Policy (lien) and the customer Terms of Use (lien) supplement this agreement as regards the office's dealings with customers through the platform.

2. Definitions

2.1 "Customer": the platform user who books a worker listed by the office.

2.2 "Worker": the domestic worker listed by the office on the platform.

2.3 "Listing": everything the office publishes about a worker, including information, photos, documents, prices and availability.

2.4 "Recruitment contract": the contract the office makes with the customer. The platform is not a party to it.

2.5 "Recruitment fee": what the office charges the customer directly under the recruitment contract.

2.6 "Platform fee": what the platform charges the customer for its service.

2.7 "Commission": what the office pays the platform for each completed booking under clause 7.

2.8 "Completed booking": a booking in which the customer has confirmed the worker's arrival through the platform.

3. The platform's role and the nature of the relationship

3.1 The platform provides the office with a technology service: displaying its listings to customers, passing bookings to it, tools to manage listings, availability and booking steps, and notifications.

3.2 The platform is not a recruitment office and does not carry on recruitment. It is not the office's agent or partner, and it is not the employer of the office, its staff or its workers. This agreement creates no partnership, agency, franchise or employment relationship.

3.3 The platform is not a party to the recruitment contract or the employment contract, and does not receive or hold the recruitment fee.

3.4 The platform does not undertake to deliver any number of bookings or any income, or any particular position for the office's listings in search results.

3.5 This agreement is not exclusive. The platform may deal with other offices.

4. The office's declarations and licence

4.1 The office declares and undertakes that it is licensed by the competent authority to carry on domestic-worker recruitment in the State of Kuwait, that its licence and commercial registration are valid, and that it will keep them valid for the whole term of this agreement.

4.2 The office undertakes to submit its true documents at registration (the licence, the commercial registration, proof of the owner's identity and bank account details), to update them as soon as anything changes, and to notify the platform immediately if the licence expires, is suspended or is cancelled, or if any decision restricts its activity.

4.3 The office authorises the platform to show customers its verification status, trade name and published details as the office provided them.

4.4 The platform's review of the office's documents is a review of what was given to it. It does not relieve the office of responsibility for their accuracy, and it is not a statement by the platform that the office's legal position is sound.

4.5 The office will stop receiving bookings through the platform as soon as it loses its licence or its right to carry on the activity for any reason.

5. Listings and their content

5.1 The office alone is responsible for every listing it publishes, and for its accuracy, completeness, lawfulness and currency.

5.2 The office undertakes that:

• The worker's information is true: name, nationality, age, experience, skills, languages and status.
• The photos are genuine, recent and of the worker herself.
• The office has the right to offer the worker, and the worker has agreed to her information and photos being published for this purpose.
• The recruitment fee shown is what the customer will actually be asked to pay, and does not exceed the officially set limit.
• Availability is correct and up to date.

5.3 Listings are reviewed by the platform before publication. The platform may refuse any listing, ask for it to be changed or remove it at any time, without becoming responsible for its content.

5.4 The office grants the platform a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display its listing content and its trade mark on the website and the app, and in presenting the platform, for the term of the agreement.

5.5 Content that is discriminatory, degrading, unlawful or contrary to public morals is prohibited, as is any description that demeans the worker's dignity.

6. Bookings and service level

6.1 The office undertakes to answer every booking, by accepting or declining, within 24 hours of receiving it. Repeated lateness affects the office's visibility and may lead to suspension of the account.

6.2 The office acknowledges that the platform fee is refunded in full to the customer if the office declines the booking or the customer cancels before acceptance. In that case the office is owed nothing by the platform and owes no commission.

6.3 By accepting a booking the office undertakes that the worker is available and that it will proceed with the recruitment with the customer in good faith.

6.4 The office undertakes to keep availability up to date. The office acknowledges that the platform flags availability that has not been updated and may make the worker unavailable automatically if it stays out of date.

6.5 The office undertakes to record the booking steps on the platform truthfully and on time (such as visa issued and ready to arrive), and not to record a step that has not happened.

6.6 The worker's arrival is confirmed by the customer, not by the office. The office must not pressure the customer to confirm an arrival that has not taken place.

6.7 If the office cannot complete a booking it accepted, it must tell the customer and the platform immediately and record it.

7. Fees and commission

7.1 In this version the platform charges the office no fee for joining or for publishing listings.

7.2 The office pays the platform a commission for each completed booking. The commission is currently 10 KD per booking, and the amount in force when the invoice is issued applies.

7.3 The platform issues the commission invoice when the customer confirms the worker's arrival. It appears on the invoices page of the office account.

7.4 The invoice is payable within 14 days of its issue date by the method the platform specifies, unless the platform sets another period in writing.

7.5 The commission is earned by the platform on confirmation of arrival. It is not refundable and is not affected by anything that later happens in the relationship between the office and the customer or the worker.

7.6 If payment is late, the platform may stop the office from receiving new bookings or suspend its account until payment, and keeps its right to claim the amounts due.

7.7 The platform fee paid by the customer belongs to the platform alone. The office is entitled to no part of it.

7.8 The platform may change the commission by notifying the office before the change takes effect. The change does not apply to bookings completed before its effective date.

8. The office's obligations toward the customer and the worker

8.1 The office alone contracts with the customer and is solely responsible to the customer for the recruitment contract and its performance.

8.2 The office alone bears all the obligations that the laws and regulations in force in the State of Kuwait place on recruitment offices, including those governing domestic labour and consumer protection, toward the customer and toward the worker, before and after her arrival, whatever those obligations are and however long they last.

8.3 This includes, without limitation: the recruitment, visa, travel and medical procedures, handing over the worker, everything the law requires of the office where the worker is unfit for work, refuses to work or leaves the job, refunding the recruitment fee or any part of it where that is due, and matters relating to the worker's wages and rights to the extent they bind the office.

8.4 The office undertakes to collect the recruitment fee from the customer directly and give a receipt for it, and not to ask the customer for amounts above what was listed or above the officially set limit.

8.5 The office undertakes to treat workers humanely and with dignity, not to withhold their documents or wages in breach of the law, and to refrain from any act that amounts to exploitation or trafficking in persons.

8.6 The office undertakes to answer customers' questions and complaints about its services directly and within a reasonable time. The platform does not decide matters arising between the office and the customer or the worker.

9. Prohibited conduct

9.1 The office must not:

• Direct a customer to complete outside the platform a booking that began on it, or make any arrangement meant to avoid the platform fee or the commission.
• Ask the customer for the platform fee or collect it for itself, or suggest that it is part of the recruitment fee.
• Publish fake listings or listings for workers who are not available, or accept bookings it does not intend to carry out.
• Record steps that are not true, or influence the customer to confirm an arrival that has not taken place.
• Discriminate between customers in breach of the law, or publish degrading or misleading content.
• Mistreat workers or breach their rights.
• Present itself to customers as an agent or representative of the platform, or suggest that the platform stands behind its services.
• Use customers' data for anything other than carrying out the booking, or sell or share it.
• Create more than one account for the office, or share sign-in details with anyone not authorised.

10. Protecting customers' data

10.1 Through the platform the office receives personal data about customers for one purpose, namely carrying out the booking and the recruitment contract. The office is independently responsible for that data from the moment it receives it.

10.2 The office undertakes not to use the data for any other purpose, not to send customers marketing messages without their consent, and not to disclose the data to others except as needed to carry out the recruitment or as the law requires.

10.3 The office undertakes to keep the data under suitable protection measures, to limit access to those of its staff who need it, and to notify the platform without delay of any breach affecting customer data received through the platform.

10.4 The office will comply with the laws in force in the State of Kuwait on personal data protection in everything it collects from customers and workers.

11. Indemnity

11.1 The office undertakes to indemnify the platform, the operator and their staff, and hold them harmless, against any claim, action, fine, loss or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising from any of the following:

• The office's services, or the recruitment contract, its performance or its breach.
• The workers listed by the office, and their acts, condition and rights.
• The content of the office's listings, its inaccuracy or its infringement of others' rights.
• The office's licence not being valid, or the office breaching the laws and regulations.
• The office's breach of this agreement or of its data protection obligations.

11.2 If a claim is made against the platform for a reason attributable to the office, the platform may notify the office and ask it to take over the response to the claim at its own expense, and the office will cooperate fully.

12. Limitation of the platform's liability

12.1 The platform is provided to the office "as is" and "as available". The platform does not undertake that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that customers are genuine, that their information is accurate or that they will complete the contract.

12.2 To the fullest extent the law allows, the platform is not liable to the office for any indirect or consequential loss, including loss of profit or opportunity or harm to reputation.

12.3 In all cases, the platform's total liability to the office for any claim will not exceed the total commissions the office actually paid to the platform in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim.

12.4 Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under the laws in force in the State of Kuwait, including liability for fraud or gross negligence.

13. Suspension and removal

13.1 The platform may suspend the office account, remove its listings or stop it receiving bookings, immediately and without prior notice where necessary, in the following cases:

• The licence has expired or been suspended, or there is reasonable doubt that it is valid.
• Incorrect information or documents were submitted.
• A breach of this agreement or of the law.
• Repeated customer complaints, or repeated lateness in answering bookings.
• Late payment of the commission.
• A request from a competent authority.

13.2 On suspension the office remains bound to complete the bookings it accepted toward its customers and remains fully responsible for them.

13.3 The platform owes the office no compensation for a suspension or removal made under this clause.

14. Confidentiality

14.1 Each party will keep confidential the non-public information about the other party that it learns in connection with this agreement, including customer data and commercial and technical information, and will not use it for anything other than performing the agreement.

14.2 This obligation does not apply to information that was public, or to what the law or a competent authority requires to be disclosed.

14.3 The confidentiality obligation continues after the agreement ends.

15. Term and termination

15.1 The agreement takes effect on the date the office accepts it and remains in force for as long as the office account exists.

15.2 Either party may end it at any time by notifying the other. The office may ask the platform team to close its account.

15.3 The platform may end it immediately on a material breach by the office or on the office losing its licence.

15.4 On termination the office's listings are removed, and the office remains bound by the following: completing accepted bookings toward its customers, paying the commissions due, and the provisions on indemnity, data protection, confidentiality and limitation of liability.

15.5 The platform keeps the records that must be kept after termination, as described in the Privacy Policy.

16. Changes to the agreement

16.1 The platform may change this agreement. Every change is published as a new version with a number and a date.

16.2 If the change is material, the owner of the office is asked to accept the new version before continuing to use the account. If the owner does not agree, the office may end the agreement under clause 15.

17. Governing law and jurisdiction

17.1 This agreement is governed by and interpreted under the laws and regulations in force in the State of Kuwait.

17.2 The courts of the State of Kuwait have jurisdiction over any disagreement or claim arising from this agreement, after an attempt to settle it amicably.

18. Language and general provisions

18.1 This agreement is written in Arabic. The English translation is for convenience. If the two differ, the Arabic text prevails.

18.2 If a clause of this agreement is held invalid, the remaining clauses stay in force.

18.3 A party not exercising one of its rights is not a waiver of that right.

18.4 The office may not assign this agreement or its account to anyone else without the platform's written consent. The operator may assign it to its successor in operating the platform, with notice to the office.

18.5 Notices sent to the email address registered in the office account, or shown inside the account, are valid notices.

18.6 This agreement is the entire agreement between the parties on its subject and replaces earlier understandings about it, unless a written agreement signed by both parties provides otherwise.

19. Contact

19.1 To contact the platform about this agreement: support@makhdoom.io.

19.2 Operator: Makhdoom.