Sick leave entitlement
An employee is entitled to sick leave with full payment for two weeks and half pay for the next four weeks
QUESTION: In our employment contract authenticated, sick leave is limited to one day a month, totalling six days half yearly. Half of this could be carried forward to the second half. Is this legal? The annual leave is agreed to two weeks every year. The employer says once it is certified by the Labour Department, this is final. Please advice.
KT, Doha
ANSWER: Article 4 nullifies any agreement between the employer and employee reducing or waving the minimum rights stipulated under the law. The Labour Laws guarantee minimum rights to workers.
The entitlements prescribed by the Labour Law represent the minimum entitlements of the workers and any stipulation contradicting the provisions thereunder shall be void unless the stipulation is more advantageous to the workers.
The employee is entitled to sick leave with full payment for two weeks and half pay for the next four weeks. Leave exceeding this period will be without pay, till work is resumed or the employee resigns or is terminated due to sickness at the end of the 12th week of the sick leave provided that a medical report is issued by a physician that the employee is unfit to perform duties.
Regarding annual leave, those employees with more than one and less than five years’ continuous employment shall be entitled to three weeks’ paid holiday per year. When service exceed five years, the leave entitlement will be four weeks. The worker shall be entitled to a leave for the fractions of the year in proportion to the period of his service.
The employer shall fix the date of the annual leave for the worker in accordance with the work requirements and employees may request that up to half of their annual leave entitlement be carried forward to the next holiday year.
The worker shall be entitled to payment in lieu of his annual leave equivalent to his wage for the leave days to which he is entitled if the contract is terminated for any reason before the worker takes his leave.
Opening another person’s letters
Q: What is the punishment in Qatar for fraudulently opening a document letter addressed to another person, accessing the message and later misusing its contents? My previous employer had sent me a document and this was misused by a postal employee. I have the details to prove my charge.
RF, Doha
A: According to Article 194, a prison sentence not exceeding three years and/or a fine of not exceeding QR10,000 shall be the penalty for anyone who has concealed a letter delivered to the post office or has damaged or opened it or has facilitated this act for another person. This provision shall apply to telecommunication messages too.
Warranty obligation
Q: We are signing a contract for a construction job as major subcontractor. In the contract’s general conditions, it is mentioned that the contract will be back to back, including implications under Article 711 of civil laws. Please advice the effect of Article 711? How could we be protected?
GM, Doha
A: Article 711 is on warranty obligation of the contractor, liability of contractor and consultants etc. The Article stipulates that main contractors and consultants are liable, without fault, for the cost of rectifying structural defects that appear in a building or structure within ten years of handover.
The consultant and contractor are jointly and severally responsible for the total or partial damage of constructions or other permanent works erected by them for a period of 10 years from the date of completing the building or construction. It is not necessary to prove any negligence or breach of contract.
The warranty shall extend to the collapse of buildings even though it arises from a defect in the land or if the employer has authorized the erection of the defective buildings or constructions.
It shall also extend to the defects in buildings and constructions which endanger the strength and safety of the works.
However, if it is proved that the intent of the contracting parties that the buildings or constructions shall last for less than ten years, the warranty shall be for the period during which they are intended to last.
Employer’s responsibiltiy
Q: I am under an unlimited employment contract and have completed three years in service. So far I have not availed of my annual vacation or visited native place. Now I want to terminate the contract and leave Qatar. The company management is asking me to bear my own travel charges because I had got my visa transferred locally and also because I am resigning. Is this the law?
SA, Doha
A: On transfer of sponsorship the repatriation obligation shifts from the former employer to the later and Article 57 shall apply. Article 57 stipulates that upon termination of the service of the worker the employer shall at its cost return him to the place from where employer has recruited him at the commencement of the engagement or to any place agreed upon between the parties within a period not exceeding two weeks from the expiry date of the contract. While construing all the related provisions on repatriation of resigned expatriate employee, the employer must provide return passage in the case of unlimited contracts.
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LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR
A company’s assets shall be divided between all its partners after payment of the creditors, deduction of amounts required to cover debts that have not fallen due or are subject to litigation and payment of disbursements or loans that may have been made by one of the partners for the benefit of the company.
Each partner shall take a sum equal to the value of his contribution to the capital of the company, as recorded in the company’s memorandum of association, or if not recorded in the company’s memorandum of association, unless he has only contributed his services, the usufruct or the mere use of the thing that he has brought to the company.
The balance, if any, shall be distributed between the partners proportional each partner’s share in the profits.
If the company’s assets are not sufficient to cover the repayment of the partners’ contributions, the loss shall be shared between the partners proportionately to each partner’s share in the losses.
Article 564 define loan as a contract by which the lender undertakes to transfer to the borrower the ownership of a sum of money or other fungible upon condition that the borrower returns a thing equal in amount, kind and quality.
The lender shall deliver to the borrower the thing, which is the object of the contract unless it is agreed that its delivery shall take place at another time.
If the thing perishes before its delivery to the borrower, the loss shall fall on the lender.
According to Article 566, if the borrowed thing becomes due, the provisions relating to gratuitous loan shall be applicable.
If a defect appears in the borrowed thing and the borrower elects to keep it, he shall only be under obligation to repay the value of the defective thing.
However, if the borrower deliberately conceals the defect, he shall be liable for the damage caused by the defect.
Lending shall take place free of interest and every condition providing for the contrary shall be null and void without prejudice to the loan agreement itself. Every benefit required by the lender shall be deemed as interest.
The borrower shall repay the valuable consideration when the agreed date falls or upon the lapse of the time limit.
If no fixed date is agreed or if it is agreed that repayment shall take place when repayment is possible, the judge shall fix a suitable date of repayment according to the circumstances.