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.