DOHA: The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has terminated the licences of several manpower agencies for recruiting housemaids and offering them for jobs on part-time basis.
A senior official of the Ministry has disclosed that the licences of 14 recruiting agencies have been cancelled until now for various types of violations. A major violation was supplying housemaids for part-time jobs on condition that they are to be paid on hourly basis.
Manpower agencies are not permitted to do this, Al Sharq said, quoting Fawaz Al Rees, director of the Recruitment Department at the Ministry. Only cleaning companies can employ workers on such conditions, said the official.
Recently, there were reports about several private companies recruiting housemaids from different countries and providing them to Qatari and non-Qatari households mostly for day time jobs on hourly basis.
The stern action follows a continuous evaluation of manpower agencies in the country launched by the Ministry last year.
Earlier in March, the Ministry announced termination of licenses of 10 manpower agencies recruiting housemaids for various violations and another four companies are now added to this list.
Meanwhile, the Ministry continues to receive a number of job-related complaints from employees. According an official, a majority of the disputes — about 85 percent — are settled amicably, through discussions with the employers.
About 15 percent of the cases are referred to the court, according to Saleh Saeed Al Shawi, head of the Labour Relations Department at the ministry.
During the first six months of this year, the ministry received a total of 4,776 job-related complaints and of these 3,667 were settled amicably. A total of 300 cases were referred to the court while some of the complaints were withdrawn later.
Al Shawi said most of the complaints were from construction workers and were related to denial of their basic rights such as salaries, allowances and air tickets.
The statistics do not reflect an increase in the number of complaints compared to last year, when the Ministry received a total of 8,668 complaints over 12 months. Of these, 6517 disputes were settled amicably and 649 cases were referred to the court.
The Ministry has set up offices across the country to receive complaints from workers. Job-related complaints can be lodged at Ministry’s offices in Al Muntaza, Industrial Area, Al Khor, Al Ruwais, Al Rayyan and Al Wakra.
The Peninsula
