Doha: Speaking in Shura Council on labor laws yesterday, the Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs H E Yousuf bin Mohamed Al Othman Fakhroo said that the transfer of sponsorship has rules, controls, and procedures that will preserve the rights of all parties.
The Minister said that the number of workers who requested a transfer is few and that those whose requests were approved are smaller, adding that the law gave the worker the opportunity to submit a request to change the employer, but this request is subject to approval or rejection after communicating with the concerned parties. He pointed out that there is a platform for the transfer of workers in coordination with the Qatar Chamber.
The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting yesterday under the chairmanship of Speaker of the Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud.
At an invitation from Speaker of the Council, the Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs attended the session to explain the articles in Decree-Law No. 18 of 2020 amending some provisions of the Labour Law promulgated by Law No. 14 of 2004, and to present the Ministry’s viewpoint on what was stated in the general debate request submitted by a number of the Council members regarding the change of employer and travel without notice for expatriate workers.
The Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs began the discussions, explaining that the Ministry is currently seeking to develop legal legislation based on the Qatar National Vision 2030, and within the framework of implementing the national strategy projects so that the labour market is modern and dynamic.
It also enhances the State’s economic level to attract foreign investment and compete in global markets, achieve balance in the demographics of the State of Qatar in terms of the quality and size of the resident population, reduce the number of unskilled and illegal workers, rotate and retain skilled labor, while achieving legal guarantees for all parties that are compatible with international standards.
The Minister stated that the amendments have been expedited to accelerate handling of coronavirus crisis and its economic impact and the difficulty of returning workers to their countries due to the measures taken by the State and the labor-sending countries to reduce the spread of the disease, adding that the situation did not allow workers to leave Qatar, which had a negative impact on the conditions of companies and workers.
He added that the amendment included introducing the benefits of free movement of workers in the State of Qatar locally according to specific controls, and that the aforementioned amendments meet the required balance and justice between the two parties to the labor contract represented by the employer and the worker, as both parties have the freedom to terminate the contract with the obligation to compensate the other party, and with the employer’s right to oblige the worker to a non-competition clause as a clause in the contract, and the worker must respect this clause for a full year and is banned from working for a competitor in the same economic sector for the employer, in addition to the possibility of adding other conditions and clauses to be included in an appendix to the standard labor contract to preserve the employer’s right to compensation for the costs incurred by him in order to recruit and train the worker as well as any other costs.
The Minister added that the new amendments included setting rules and procedures by the Ministry in general in order to define the mechanism and controls for the transfer and decide on the approval of the submitted applications, which are being studied to achieve flexibility in developing these procedures in a way that preserves the rights of all the parties.
He affirmed the Ministry’s keenness to follow up on employers’ observations regarding these procedures to develop them in a manner that preserves the rights of all parties.
In his response to the questions and inquiries of the members of the Council, the Minister explained that getting rid of illegal workers comes at the forefront of the ministry’s priorities and that there are radical solutions to this matter, and announced that a study is underway to classify companies.
At the end of the session, Speaker of the Shura Council directed the joint committee of the Services and Public Utilities Committee and the Internal and External Affairs Committee to complete its report on Decree Law No. 18 of 2020 amending some provisions of the Labor Law promulgated by Law No. 14 of 2004, and regarding the request for public debate submitted by a number of members of the Council related to the transfer of the employer and travel without notice for the expatriate workers, in light of the clarifications made by Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs and the discussions with him during the session in this regard, in order to submit its report to the Council in preparation for referring its recommendations to the esteemed government.