In a veiled yet terse message to Manila, which wants the new minimum wage implemented here, the Labour Ministry has hinted it is encouraging local manpower agencies to explore new markets to hire domestic workers.
The labour law in Qatar, in fact, does not authorize the Ministry to fix either the fees manpower agencies charge for their services or the minimum wages of domestic workers.
The Ministry recently held a meeting with local recruitment business representatives and told them to go ahead and look for other markets in different parts of the world.
As reported earlier, Qatar, in coordination with other GCC countries that are also reliant on Filipina maids to a large extent, is keen to tap countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Armenia in Eastern Europe, Tanzania, Mauritius and Kenya in Africa, and Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam in Asia, to recruit domestic helpers.
Manpower agencies have been given the hope that maids could be brought from these countries on monthly wages ranging between QR700 and QR800.
Sources in the recruitment business, though, say details of the agreements the Labour Ministry has inked with these countries are yet to be known.
Moreover, they add that they doubt if European women would be willing to work in Qatar given the low wages and typical working conditions and Qatari culture and traditions.
At their meeting, senior Labour Ministry officials, however, said some encouraging words to the manpower agencies: “We can issue you 500 visas each if you so wish, but explore these new markets”.
The Director of Legal Affairs Department of the Ministry, Mohamed Al Obaidly, and the head of the section that deals with recruiting agencies, Faris Al Kaabi, addressed the meeting.
Manila does have the right to set new minimum wages for its workers, but Qatar also has the right to look for alternatives, according to the officials.
“In close cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, we have decided to open up new markets to hire maids,” the officials told the meeting, adding, in an oblique criticism of Manila: “We must break the monopoly (of some countries)”.
Al Kaabi and Al Obaidly said the ministry’s priority was to look after the interests of fellow Qatari citizens. “There are elderly people and low-income families in our community who have maids and we must first and foremost think of them,” the duo said, hinting that these segments of their community could not afford to pay QR1,500 to their maids every month.
The officials lambasted a recent announcement by some recruitment business representatives that a deal had been reached with an umbrella body of Filipino manpower agencies to implement the new minimum wages for Filipina household workers.
The Labour Ministry officials hinted that the deal was struck at the behest of the Philippine embassy here. “Who are these people to speak and act on behalf of the Labour Ministry?” they asked.
They said the manpower agencies involved in the deal row were summoned and issued a “stern” warning.
And, importantly, all recruiting agencies have been warned not to deal with the embassy of any manpower exporting country (again, a veiled reference to the Philippine embassy) without obtaining prior permission of the Labour Ministry.
