Thursday 6 March 2014
Qatar taking steps to control labour violations
With regular reports of labour violations coming out on television, local and global, Qatar’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA)...
With regular reports of labour violations coming out on television, local and global, Qatar’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) is evidently making plans to fix the matter.
In a series of tweets, the ministry has presented procedures it is taking to deal with the situation. The ministry, replying to allegations of deaths of workers from India at several sites, said it was acutely aware of published figures of deaths of (Indian workers) and is right now working on clarifying them.
“Where any obligation is found to stay with employers, MOLSA and Qatari law authorities will go after these cases through the appropriate legal channels. We expect to see the majority of construction work to be performed by the private sector, so we will need to continue work with them to implement our laws,” the ministry tweeted on 3rd March.
MOLSA said that lots of companies have been given notice for labour law violations, including 2,000 in 2013 and 500 in January this year. “We did more than 11,500 random spot checks of work environments in the past 3 months and we have increased the numbers of properly trained labour inspectors by 25 percent, and continue to employ new inspectors,” the ministry said.
Legal view
The ministry said that it is employing legal experts and has recently developed educational materials and hotlines accessible in South Asian languages. “Qatar is very proud for being a participating representative of the ILO and we are in discussion with them to develop a cooperation legal contract for a 3 year program,” stated MOLSA.
In tweets on March 4, the ministry reported: “we now have clear laws and written labour contract terms to protect people who live and work in Qatar and anybody found to have violated those laws will be prosecuted. These habits among others are illegal in Qatar: non-payment of wages, the billing of recruitment fees to workers and retention of passports,” said the ministry. However, details of punishments for violators of labour rights have not been revealed.
In a series of tweets, the ministry has presented procedures it is taking to deal with the situation. The ministry, replying to allegations of deaths of workers from India at several sites, said it was acutely aware of published figures of deaths of (Indian workers) and is right now working on clarifying them.
“Where any obligation is found to stay with employers, MOLSA and Qatari law authorities will go after these cases through the appropriate legal channels. We expect to see the majority of construction work to be performed by the private sector, so we will need to continue work with them to implement our laws,” the ministry tweeted on 3rd March.
MOLSA said that lots of companies have been given notice for labour law violations, including 2,000 in 2013 and 500 in January this year. “We did more than 11,500 random spot checks of work environments in the past 3 months and we have increased the numbers of properly trained labour inspectors by 25 percent, and continue to employ new inspectors,” the ministry said.
Legal view
The ministry said that it is employing legal experts and has recently developed educational materials and hotlines accessible in South Asian languages. “Qatar is very proud for being a participating representative of the ILO and we are in discussion with them to develop a cooperation legal contract for a 3 year program,” stated MOLSA.
In tweets on March 4, the ministry reported: “we now have clear laws and written labour contract terms to protect people who live and work in Qatar and anybody found to have violated those laws will be prosecuted. These habits among others are illegal in Qatar: non-payment of wages, the billing of recruitment fees to workers and retention of passports,” said the ministry. However, details of punishments for violators of labour rights have not been revealed.
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