Employer obliged to pay compensation

By Nizar Kochery/Doha

QUESTION: I have been working at a shop in a remote place in Shahaniyya as an accountant. I have no employment contract. The shop is my sponsor’s establishment. Am I covered under Qatar’s Labour Laws? I met with an accident while changing a bulb at the shop recently. The ladder slipped and I fell down, injuring my disc. I am under treatment now. The sponsor have no insurance coverage; he wants to send me back to my home country by paying a small amount. I have no money to file a case in court.

AD, Doha

ANSWER: Being employed by the sponsor’s establishment, all labour-related matters are governed by Law No 14 of the year 2004 and accordingly, the employer is legally obliged to pay compensation.

The insurance arrangement is employers’ private arrangement to indemnify the employer only. Article 110 of the Laws stipulates that the amount of compensation shall be calculated in accordance with the provisions of Shariah and currently the amount of compensation in case of death of the worker due to work accidents is QR200,000.

For partial disability a proportionate amount of compensation will be awarded by the court based on the disability certification issued by the medical authority. All labour-related matters are exempted from court fee.

Amount of compensation

Q: We are a contracting company engaged in construction. In a contract we have signed with a client, there is a provision for penalty for delay. Actually in this particular case, there is no loss to the customer. My questions are 1) Is it legal fixing compensation for damages due to delay in the contract when the client is supplying materials? 2) Is it legal for the client to ask for compensation when there is no actual loss?

KF, Doha

A: Under Article 171 of the Civil Code, contracting parties can agree terms which do not contravene the law and will be bound accordingly. Hence any pre-agreement as to the amount of compensation due for specified instances of breach is legal. Also, Article 265 of the Civil Code stipulates that if the subject matter of the obligation is not a sum of money, the contracting parties may agree in advance to the value of the compensation, whether in the contract or in a later agreement.

However, Qatari law provides for a contractor to wholly resist the imposition of delay damages where he can establish that the employer suffered no damage whatsoever as a result of the delay. The relevant provision, Article 266 provides that the agreed upon compensation shall not be due if the debtor proves that the creditor did not suffer any damage.

The court may reduce the compensation from the one agreed upon if the debtor proves that the assessment was exaggerated to a high degree, or that the obligation has been partially performed.

Any agreement to the contrary shall be null and void.

A criminal breach of trust

Q: My sponsor-cum-partner has filed a police complaint against me that I have taken all the money invested and equipment in our company. We both have invested in the company and have also provided some assets. I have been managing the business. The company has gone into losses now and the sponsor blames me for that. He alleges that I have cheated the company and he has gone to the police, complaining a breach of trust from my part. It is true that while shifting the office recently, I have sold two old computers provided by the sponsor and paid off the dues to a computer technician, the buyer in the case. Please advice on the legal part of breach of trust in Qatar.

AG, Doha

A: In general whoever being in any manner entrusted with property or with any dominion over property, dishonestly misappropriates or converts to his own use that property or dishonestly uses or disposes of that property in violation of the legal contract, express or implied commits criminal breach of trust.

Under Article 362 of the Qatar Penal Laws, a prison sentence of no more than three years and to a fine of no more than QR10,000 shall be inflicted upon any person in such cases.

For the purposes of the Article, there shall be treated as an agent every partner participating in a common property, a person who is intrusive upon the funds of the actual owner thereof and any person who has been delivered an object for use for a specific matter for the benefit of its owner or others.

A prison sentence for a term not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding QR5,000 shall be the penalty for any person who seizes with the intent of acquiring for himself any lost monies or funds that have come in his possession by mistake or by force majeure.

The same punishment shall be inflicted upon any person who embezzles or attempts to embezzle property that may have been mortgaged as security for a debt owed by him or by another.

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LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR

A mortgage granted by all the co-owners of an immovable held in common remains effective whatever may be the ultimate result of a partition of the immovable or of its sale owing to impossibility of partition. If one of the owners grants a mortgage on his undivided share or part thereof, the mortgage will be transferred to a portion of this property equivalent in value to that of the mortgaged portion after partition. This portion will, upon petition, be fixed by an order of the court.

The mortgage shall maintain its rank if a new registration is made for it within sixty days of the notification made to the mortgagee creditor by any interested party to register the partition. The mortgage so transferred shall not have any prejudicial effect on a mortgage already granted by all the co-owners or on the privileges of co-partitioners.

A mortgage may be granted to secure a conditional, future or contingent debt. It may also be granted to secure an open credit or the opening of a current account, provided that the amount of the debt secured or the maximum amount which such debt may attain, is fixed in the mortgage deed. In the absence of a provision of the law or of an agreement to the contrary, every part of the mortgaged immovable or immovables shall secure the whole of the debt and each part of the debt is secured by the whole of the mortgaged immovable or immovables.

Generally the mortgage cannot be separated from the debt that it secures as regards its validity and extinction. If the mortgagor is a person other than the debtor, he may, in addition to the defence that are personal to him, avail himself of those which belong to the debtor as regards the debt and he keeps this right notwithstanding the renunciation of the debtor.

A mortgagor has the right to carry on the management of the mortgaged property, collect the fruits and yields until making an entry of attachment over the property’s registration. Also he may dispose of the mortgaged property, but any disposal of the property by him does not affect the right of the mortgagee creditor.

Regarding lease, a lease agreement entered into by a mortgagor cannot have any effect against a mortgagee unless such lease has been given a specific date before making an attachment entry over the property’s registration. A lease that has not a specific date in such a way or that has been entered into after placing an attachment entry over the property’s registration without payment of rent having been made in advance, will not be effective unless it falls within the category of acts of good management.

If the duration of the lease entered into before placing an attachment entry over the property’s registration exceeds ten years, the lease has effect against the mortgagee only for ten years unless it has been registered in the Land Registry before registration of the mortgage.