Law No 15 of 2016, the New HR Law

Law No. 15 of 2016 on Civil Human Resources was issued by HH the Emir
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, recently.

The
new law deals with more Qatarisation, leaves available and other working
conditions of civilian employees working with Government and public sector
entities. The Law will have impact on Qataris as well as non-Qatari employees
working with the above institutions, who were earlier governed by the Law on
Human Resources Management.

Judges, assistant
judges, members of the Public Prosecution and their assistants, employees of
the Emiri Diwan, employees of the diplomatic and consulate corps, university
teaching staff, Qatar Petroleum employees, Qatar Investment Authority employees
and State Audit Bureau employees are exempted from the provisions of the Law.

The
new Law speaks about various allowances of government employees, different
types of leaves, employees’ benefits and other work related issues.

The
amendments are aimed at the high efficiency of workers equipping them for the
Qatar National Vision 2030 for a self-supporting country. Once the executive
regulations are issued the law was supposed to be effective from the next day
of its official publication on the Gazette.

There
will be priority order for employment for different categories. As per the new
Law the first priority is for Qatari citizens, then for children born of Qatari
mother and non-Qatari father, non-Qatari spouses of Qataris, other GCC
citizens, Arab expatriates and the last, for other nationalities.

Expatriate
workers will be recruited through employment contracts only. There will be
authority to decide the selection. Necessary data about the human resources
recruitment are to be submitted before the Ministry of Administrative
Development & Labor and Social Affairs. Detailed advertisement of the
vacancy is to be published in two leading local dailies and may be online
specifying the entity name, positions, qualifications required, pay grades,
date of tests if any, the name of center/s of test, subjects, type etc. The
time limit of applying should be a minimum of 15 days from the date of
announcement of vacancy. An employee can be considered or can be promoted to a
vacant position if he acquires a required qualification and experience for that
post subsequently. If there is no vacant position in the same level with same
conditions, an employee could not be transferred.

According
to the new Law the probationary period of government and public sector
employees will be three months which could be extended for another similar term
and can be terminated if the performance is not satisfactory.

A
Government employee will be eligible for a higher pay than the scale
stipulated, if his or her expertise exceeds the minimum requirements for the
category.

As
per the law if a single working day falls between two public holidays that day
can be treated as a holiday.

Annual
leave days of employees varies from 30-45 days according to their respective
grades ranging from 10 to one, and seven days of leave available to them as
casual leave. Employee may take leave with necessary prior approval. An
emergency leave for seven days annually is also provided. Sick leaves are
granted to employees generally for three consecutive days at a time and ten
days annually, if supported by proper medical documents and approvals.

For
women employees, the maternity leave is for two months to be paid in full and
if twins are born, the leave period is three months. The Law considers the
situation of mothers of disabled children also and offers a term of five years’
leave in such cases.

There
is provision for accommodation or allowance in lieu of boarding. For non-Qatari
labourers the allowance is set at QAR 800.

The
minimum and maximum level of salary has been fixed as QAR 2300 or 3000 and QAR
65,000 respectively, according to the respective grades for Qataris. For
transportation and housing also such levels have been fixed for Qatari employees.
There is furniture allowance and transportation allowance for non-Qataris as
per their contracts and such employees recruited from abroad will be eligible
for annual tickets as well as repatriation tickets on termination, for their
wife and children up to three.

For
nationals of lowest grades, Grade 12, the minimum monthly remuneration level
will be QAR 4,160 which was between 2,200 and 2,600 earlier.

Gratuity
is to be paid to an employee at the rate of one month’s last drawn basic
salary, who completed one year of service and the maximum gratuity could be for
10 months for expatriates.

Regular
allowances should not be denied to an employee, unless his service is ended
further to a disciplinary action.

Disabled
employees are to be supplied with all the means to work and to be treated and
provided with jobs as people of special needs.

There
will be performance review of the employees annually. If an employee remains
absent for 15 consecutive days without the knowledge or permission of the
employer, he or she may be considered as resigned even though the cause is
legitimate and if absent for 30 non consecutive days without permission of the
employer, his or her service is considered terminated.

Prior
to punishment an employee should be given a chance to explain his/ her position
by providing with an opportunity of proper interrogation, either oral or
written depending on the seriousness of charges. If the charges are minor a
warning or salary deduction for three days could be imposed if found guilty. But
the official who is ordering the penalty should forward a written justification
to the higher authorities in doing so. The employees can go in appeal also
against the decision of penalization.

There
are many grounds for the ending of service of the government employee such as
resignation, sixty years of age, disciplinary action, medical unfitness,
contract termination, loss of citizenship of Qataris, by the decision of the
minister and further to a final verdict in a crime which challenges his
integrity and honesty.

The
new legislation is expected to expedite the development of Qatar’s human
capital and would help the Government in the development of the country. It may
work well for Qatari nationals to have adequate scale of pay and better work
environments based on their qualifications.