Employees seek copy of contract submitted to labour dept

Workers stand to gain from the labour department’s decision to classify companies on the basis of their track record  By Ramesh Mathew/Staff ReporterWhile welcoming the reforms introduced by the labour department to improve the work conditions of the country’s expatriate workforce through the classification of the companies on the basis of their track record, the residents have made a call for initiating more such initiatives to protect the interests of the workers.This is important as the country is set to receive large groups of workers for the execution of several major infrastructure projects that it has announced as part of the 2022 Fifa World Cup, they said.Representatives of different sections of employees said it would do them a world of good if a provision is made for them to obtain a copy of the employment contract submitted by their employers to the labour department at the time of their recruitment.“This is done to ensure that the contract given to the employee and the one submitted to the (labour) department is one and same,” said legal activist and regional convenor of Migrant Asia Nizar Kochery. There have been instances of totally different copies of contracts given to the employees and labour department by some employers in gross violation of the spirit of the Qatar Labour Law, said Kochery while recalling some of the complaints received from workers at the country’s embassies on the issue.If an employee is given access to the employment contract submitted to the labour department by his employers either through payment of a fee or otherwise, it would help him claim his end of service benefits without any issues, even if there is a dispute over payment, added the legal activist while recollecting the instances of some employees being deprived of their benefits in the absence of written labour contracts.The Article 38 of the Qatar Labour Law 14/2004 makes written employment contract mandatory in the country. While the employee and employer retain a copy of the contract, the employer is duty-bound to submit a copy of the contract to the labour department soon after he starts employing an individual. Similarly, the Article 54 of the Qatar Labour Law clearly makes it mandatory for the employer to give the end of service benefits based on the provisions of the law to the employee at the time of his leaving the country.“No employer can deny the end of service benefits to his employees citing flimsy reasons” said Kochery.The general belief among the residents is that the decision of the labour department to classify the country’s companies on the basis of their track record, if effectively implemented, would go a long way in protecting the interests of their staff, especially those employed at lower levels. One of them said it is high time the labour department also looked into the issues faced by those working in different establishments but on the sponsorship of their spouses.Similarly, there have also been calls from the residents to look into complaints of employees in some establishments, especially in cafeterias, laundries and groceries being denied overtime allowances even while working on their off-days.  “Such workers should be given a proper place to ventilate their grievances, if any,” said a Doha resident.