DOHA: A report released by Qatar Foundation on foreign workers’ recruitments for Qatar has called for job contracts of workers to be in their native language and provide them with time to consider the contract prior to departure for Qatar.
The report titled ‘Migrant Labour Recruitment to Qatar’ recommended that all workers retain a copy of their original contract at all times. Substitute contracts on arrival should be banned unless they are advantageous to workers.
Most workers interviewed by many QF companies in Qatar did not have a copy of their contracts, said the report. Typically, when asked what was in the contract, they were only able to cite the wage level. Rarely are the contracts in their native language.
One HR manager in Qatar explained that the “employment offer” they receive in their home country is only in English, while the proper contract signed on arrival in Qatar is in Arabic and English.
The company said it relies upon the recruitment agent to explain the offer to workers in their language.
“Lack of transparency regarding contracts and visas and who will explain terms and conditions to prospective migrant workers is something that needs to be addressed,” says the report.
None of the workers interviewed in Qatar for the study were in possession of their passports. Most said their employers were holding passports for “safe-keeping”. But others said passports were confiscated. Companies said passports were available on request.
“Although the withholding of passports is illegal according to Qatar Labour Law, it is a widespread practice that has been highlighted by all international organizations in their ongoing critiques of the conditions of migrant labour in Qatar. If employers provided proper secure storage space (as required under new QF Standards), the security issue should no longer be a reason, or excuse, for companies not to return passports once the official paperwork has been completed,” says the report.
The number of irregular migrant workers in Qatar is unknown, says the report.
Typically these are individuals who have entered the country on “free visas” but have not been able to find employment or a sponsor and whose visas have expired without their having left the country.
Thus they are stuck in a black labour market, mostly as day labourers and do not have enough money to leave, nor a sponsor to sign an exit visa.
Many can be seen on roads and highways waiting for someone to offer them work on a daily or hourly basis.
“Decreasing the number and vulnerability of irregular migrants would be achieved by utilising easy exit procedures and bridging visas… A migrant worker, who normally has no idea or ability to obtain or renew his work or residency visa, should not be criminalised for his irregular status.
Easy exit repatriation should be facilitated, or a sponsor found to regularise their work and residency status by way of a bridging visa – a technique being considered in Ireland and other countries. This will increase protection and mobility of migrant workers,” says the report.
In the survey of low-income households in Qatar, 44.3 percent of respondents said they had signed a contract in their home country which means more than half (55.7 percent) did not sign a contract in their home country. However, 76.8 percent signed a contract in Qatar.
It may be assumed that 32.5 percent signed two contracts, one at home and another on arrival in Qatar.
This is the practice of substitution contracts, where conditions and salary approved by the employee prior to departure are replaced by a contract with reduced benefits when they arrive – when it is too late to refuse and turn back.
A common practice in Nepal, the Philippines, and India is obtaining the signature of the employee on a substitute contract – either at the airport, just prior to departure, or upon arrival – or both.
Thus, they accept work and wages offered and cannot afford to report the deception and coercion involved in the recruitment and placement process. This is trafficking and a major source of anger and disenchantment among migrant workers in Qatar.
The Philippines is one of the few countries where national legislation forces recruitment agencies to be financially liable for any wage discrepancies between what was promised to the migrant worker and what was paid, says the report.
The Peninsula
