In the context of the continuous efforts of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs to educate workers about all precautionary measures to prevent the risk of coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the Ministry holds regular meetings with joint labour committees in companies, the last of which was held this week "remotely" using video calling technology.
The Ministry had initiated the establishment of 19 joint labour committees in major companies operating in the State of Qatar in the sectors of manufacturing, construction, contracting, maintenance, transportation and hospitality, where these committees cover more than 20 thousand workers.
The committees include representatives of the company's management and elected representatives of workers, and hold regular meetings to discuss matters related to labor affairs within the facility.
The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs seeks, through extensive communication with workers' representatives, to participate in efforts to educate workers about ways to prevent coronavirus and provide them with health advice. The joint committees play a large and vital role in developing and implementing educational programs.
The importance of the committees appears amid the coronavirus outbreak crisis, as addressing the socio-economic challenges of the pandemic requires full cooperation between all parties concerned, which includes the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs, employers and workers.
For their parts, the companies concerned examine the workers in their medical clinics, in addition to allocating rooms for quarantine in the employees' residence sites (for individuals who have had contact with one of those infected with the coronavirus or who have been infected with the disease), in order to communicate with the relevant medical authorities to take the necessary measures.
The companies also allocated employees specialized in housing homes in order to take note of health and safety measures on a daily basis and take additional measures to protect workers who have chronic diseases such as transporting people with heart diseases to another location or were asked to work from home in order to reduce their mixing with others and thus reduce the risk of infection.
The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs is currently preparing and developing guidelines on organizing elections for workers representatives electronically for companies wishing to establish joint committees.
The Ministry has also developed its capacity-building program for members of joint committees via the Internet, and will publish a guidance note for members of joint committees during the current coronavirus outbreak. (QNA)
