Essay Qatar: Employment and Effective Labor Compliance

Submitted By Zhuo Min-Gong
Words: 511
Pages: 3

1. How are wages and working conditions determined?
The working week in Qatar tends to vary between 40 and 48 hours, depending on the particular company’s policy. In the month of Ramadan, the working day is reduced to six hours and legally this should apply to all staff, but many companies only apply it to Muslims. Because the Qatar has no personal taxation, net income is usually much greater than others. Further, contract workers are awarded an indemnity at the end of the contract period.

2. What is the role of government in IR?
Qatar is a government which takes no responsibility for workers. Due to the government lacks of the effective supervision and prevention, result in the rising death toll and public criticism. The working efficiency of the government departments are very low, they have to taking long time to deal with the one case.

4. What is the role of unions?
Foreign embassies in Qatar are forced to keep quiet about the mass deaths of their citizens out of fear of retaliation by the authorities. Moreover, they have been urged to play down or deny work-related fatalities, with the threat of turning off the flow of remittances from Qatar to home.
Besides, there is no effective labor compliance system in what is effectively a police state. The minuscule labor inspectorate is no match for the vast number of work sites and labor camps in and around Qatar.

5. What is the approach of employers to employment relationships?
In Qatar, the conflicts are inevitable between employer and employee, because there are inherent competing interests. Employers pursuit the high profit, but employees also want to have their rights. In fact, fundamental rights and freedoms do not exist for poor migrant workers in Qatar. Foreign workers are enslaved – owned by employers who hold the power of recruitment, total control over wages and conditions of employment, the authority to issue ID cards and the ability to refuse a change of employment or an exit visa to leave the