File picture of labourers at a construction site used for representation.
Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi announced that the Ministry signed 36 bilateral agreements and five Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with the countries sending labor, in order to provide basic legal protection for expatriate workers before bringing them to the State of Qatar.
This came during the Minister’s meeting with Their Excellencies Ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions in the State of Qatar yesterday.
The Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs underlined that the State was in the process of taking further important measures in support of the rights of expat workers, including the establishment of an employment support fund, which would allow for the payment of overdue wages to workers in cases where their employers are delayed in paying for any reason. The project is currently under legislative procedures.
Moreover, preparations were under way to implement a minimum wage for workers in the country, taking into account the adequacy of the wage level to meet the necessary needs of the worker and to live at an appropriate humanitarian level, he added.
The Minister reviewed the efforts of the State of Qatar to promote and guarantee the rights of workers through the issuance of the latest legislations and the latest developments in the field of protection and care of the rights of expatriate workers, most notably Law No. (1) of 2015 which introduced the “wage protection system” through which companies are obliged to transfer the salaries of all workers through the system to the account of the worker in one of the financial institutions in the state. The law also punishes companies that delay or refrain from paying salaries.
The total number of beneficiaries so far is 2 million, 477 thousand and 944 workers, and the total number of companies registered in the system to date is 49 thousand and 389 companies.
The Minister also shed light on Law No (21) of 2015 regulating the entry and exit of expatriates and their residence, which granted the worker the freedom to change the employer, and the freedom to leave the country. His Excellency also explained the importance of the promulgation of Law No. (15) of 2017 on domestic workers, which provides legal protection for this category and regulates the legal relationship between the domestic worker and the employer by organizing working hours, leave, end of service benefits, complaints mechanism and other provisions.
The Minister noted that the issuance of Law No (13) of 2017 amending certain provisions of the Labor Law, which established the labor dispute settlement committee, simplified the procedures of litigation for the worker, in the context of the State’s keenness to develop mechanisms that facilitate the expatriate worker to quickly fulfill his rights.
H E Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi also referred to Cabinet decision No (15) of 2017 establishing the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking to act as the national coordinator for monitoring, preventing and combating human trafficking, and finalizing the national strategy to combat human trafficking.
The meeting comes within the framework of the awareness campaign carried out by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs to introduce the latest legislation issued by the State and the most important measures taken to protect and support the rights of expatriate workers in the State of Qatar.
