DOHA: Employers not giving air tickets to workers to visit their home countries during vacations, denial of end-of-service benefits to those leaving the country for good and delays in salary transfers were some of the major woes reported by aggrieved workers to the Labour Ministry
in 2012.
The Labour Relations Department (LRD) of the Ministry of Labour received some 6,000 worker complaints last year.
The ministry said it resolved 4,500 of these woes amicably, accounting for 85 percent of the total complaints lodged with it.
And the remaining ones that did not concern the labour relations department were referred to courts, said the Head of the department, Saleh Saed Al Shawi.
He said a majority of workers’ woes that were reported to his department in 2012 related to not getting tickets from their employers, denial of end-of- service benefits and delays in salary transfers.
Workers can lodge complaints with the branches of the department in the Industrial Area, Al Muntaza and Al Khor. However, job contracts are being attested at all the branches of the department, including ones at Al Muntaza, Industrial Area, Al Wakra, Al Ruwais and Al Khor.
The legal working age starts from 16 but persons below 18 are considered minors, so special permission is required from the Ministry of Labor if people above 16 but below 18 are to be engaged in work.
The working hours for such workers are also specified by the ministry and these must be between sunrise and sunset, Al Shawi told local Arabic daily Al Raya in an interview published yesterday.
Replying to questions about why some companies pay less to their female employees as compared to men, the official said that salaries and perks of an employee are based on the job contract signed between the employer and the worker.
Regarding worker strikes, he said such incidents were quite rare. “As soon as we get information about a strike we rush to the work site to find out the reason and solve the problem.”
