NHRC raises awareness of workers and employers’ rights among industries staff

Ashraf Siddiqui Doha The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), in collaboration with Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), recently organised two seminars t...

Ashraf SiddiquiDohaThe National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), in collaboration with Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), recently organised two seminars to raise awareness of workers’ and employers’ rights among senior management of industries and factories based in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Mesaieed Industrial City and Dukhan District.Hamad Salem Al Hajri, director of Programmes and Education Department at NHRC, said the seminars were held under NHRC campaign ‘Together We Work, I Have A Right And A Duty’ to raise awareness of human rights and enable employers and workers to be aware of their rights in accordance with the legislative developments in the country.Hajri stressed that the campaign also aims to enhance the role of companies in solving problems that prevent workers from effectively exercising their rights and to identify any obstacles that may stand in the way of employers and workers to enjoy their rights.He said that around 100 managers representing more than 10 companies in Ras Laffan Industrial City participated in first seminar while around 140 managers participated in second seminar from a number of factories based in Mesaieed Industrial City and 10 stations based in Dukhan.He said the seminars topics included Labour Law No 14, dated 2014 and its provisions, which employer must have the knowledge.“Workers need to know the rights of the employers, especially in the event of transfer request of employee to any competitor company and any fees payment involved while transferring to the new employer which is mentioned and is part of the employee contract. Moreover, in case of transfer request to new employer, one-month prior notice is required for a contract of two years and less, two-month notice period is required if the contract tenure is above two years,” Hajri added.Other topics also covered the situation of violating the terms of the contract or provisions of contract and leaving the country, which stated that the worker cannot come back to Qatar until one year from the date of departure.“The employee must leave the country within 90 days from the date of completion of his job or cancellation of his residence visa due to any reason or expiry of the residence visa,” Hajri said.The seminars also dealt with the procedure and means to resolve the labour disputes through Labour Department and Labour Dispute Resolution Committee.“The employer should not keep the worker’s travel document and it is not permissible to work without written agreement between both the employee and the employer duly certified the by Labour Department. The worker must obtain its contract copy which will be required in the event of any dispute,” Hajri said.He said the role of NHRC is to inform and work to the achieve the goals of international conventions related to human rights ratified by Qatar and to monitor the human rights situation through visits and receiving complaints and petitions, and to spread awareness and education about human rights. Hajri expressed satisfaction with the interactive questions and answers session during both seminars. He said the questions and answers session made the event purposeful and helped in achieving their goals.He hoped that NHRC efforts in creating awareness about importance of human rights and implementation on these will help in resolving labour disputes as well as prevent them from escalating.Hajri said that senior management from three major industrial sectors of Qatar will be passing on their knowledge from these seminars to the workers of their respective factories through their supervisors.He said the participants will also be distributing flyers prepared by NHRC with the necessary information on workers and employers’ rights in various languages among their workers.