* A judge from the Court of First Instance will head the committee

His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani issued yesterday law No (13) of 2017 amending some provisions of the Labour Law promulgated by law No (14) of 2004 and law No (13) of 1990, by issuing the Civil and Commercial Procedures law. The law is to go into effect and to be published in the official gazette.
The new law stipulates that a committee or more shall be created at the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs for resolving labour disputes. The committee shall be headed by a judge from the Court of First Instance, chosen by the Supreme Judiciary Council. In addition, two members of the committee shall be nominated by the Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, with one of them having experience in the field of accounts.
The minister shall issue a decision that regulates the work and mechanism of the committee. The secretariat of the committee shall be assumed by an employee or more from among the employees of the ministry, delegated by the minister’s decision.
The committee alone shall have jurisdiction over resolving all the individual disputes resulting from the implementation of the stipulations of this law or the employment contract. The committee shall give a decision on the dispute it reviews within three weeks of the first session of reviewing it. The members of the committee shall be independent, governed only by the law.
The secretariat of committee shall notify both the parties of the dispute regarding the procedures and decisions of the committee through a registered correspondence to their residence or business centres, or through any other suitable means.
The decisions issued by the committee shall include a rationale and be binding to be executed immediately. The cases concerned with this committee shall not be accepted at the courts before the committee resolves them. However, the related courts shall continue to see the related cases that have been filed before the application of this law.
However, before filing a case at the committee, the worker contesting a penalty shall submit his protest to the employer within seven days of being notified of the penalty. The complaint has to be resolved within seven days, and if the worker does not receive a response within such period, it shall be considered rejected. As an exception the worker can approach the committee directly in case of being dismissed or terminated arbitrarily by the employer, where the committee would look into the issue and take the proper decision based on facts.

The new law stipulates that a committee or more shall be created at the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs for resolving labour disputes