Labour Dept puts online tabs on law violations

Source ::: The Peninsula

Doha: The Ministry of Labour is set to introduce an online system which will enable it to detect any violation of labour law by employers, including the delay in disbursement of salaries.

The Labour Department is also planning to introduce a campaign — Qatar Gate— to create awareness of workers’ rights.

According to the online system, which is proposed to be launched early next year, employers have to enter the details of workers in a specially designed electronic programme.

Mohammed Saeed Al Nuaimy, Director of Labor Inspection Department at the Ministry of Labour, told an Arabic daily that the new system will help monitor whether firms are strictly abiding by the Labour Department’s guidelines on the operation of labour camps.

Al Nuaimy said the Labour Department, as part of the Qatar Gate campaign, would open a counter at the airport and distribute literature detailing all the necessary information needed for the newly-arriving labourers.

The booklets would be published in different languages for the convenience of the workers. The duty officer at the counter would give necessary instructions to the representative of the companies who reach the airport to receive the new employers.

Specific directives have been given to the companies on the facilities to be offered to the workers at the camps — more than four workers should not be living in a room; windows must be covered with iron nets as well as glass.

The rooms, in addition to being properly ventilated, must be big enough to meet the specified size requirement. The employer must make sure that there is proper air circulation in the rooms.

In no way, are labourers to be allowed to sleep in corridors or on roof-tops.

The Department has been working on creating a database of all companies and commercial establishments since last July, Al Nuaimy said.

Meanwhile, the Inspection Department, established according to the Emiri decree No. 35 of 2009, will continue its routine periodic inspections at the work sites, companies and labour camps.

He said the operations of two companies were suspended for one week this summer for violating the Labour Department’s directives over the break in working hours.