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[lollaerd]

Steps to shield workers� rights yield results



Source ::: THE PENINSULA

DOHA: A series of measures initiated by the Ministry of Labour to protect the rights of foreign workers in the country, in line with Qatari labour law, have started yielding results, going by what some foreign diplomats and local businessmen say. The strict procedures implemented by the Ministry for recruitment of foreign workers and measures to monitor the performance of companies in terms of protecting workers� rights have even triggered criticism that the law is biased towards the workers.

�The procedures are not to the advantage of companies. The contracts should be signed and ratified by the Foreign Ministry and the respective embassies before the worker arrives in the country. The employer will be the loser, if the worker is found to be unfit for the work since the contract had already been signed,� Ghanim Al Hajari, a Qatari businessman was quoted as saying by Al Sharq.

He said some foreign embassies had also started fixing the minimum salaries of their workers, which is not in the interests of the employers.
�The workers may be willing to accept a lower salary but the embassies will not allow that. The salaries should be negotiated between the worker and the employers directly,� he said.

He said the employers were now willing to provide better living conditions to the workers for fear of the surprise raids being conducted by the Ministry. They are also keen to stop workers from absconding by providing better facilities. There are no strict regulations to control the flight of workers, he added.

The Nepalese Ambassador to Qatar Dr Suryanath Mishra told The Peninsula yesterday that the embassy had seen a drop in the number of disputes involving Nepalese workers recently.

Workers from the Himalayan state account for the largest number of foreign labourers in the construction industry in the country. �Disputes involving large groups of workers have come down. And most such disputes have been resolved amicably by the intervention of the Ministry of Labour,� said Mishra. The embassy recently had raised the minimum wages of unskilled Nepalese workers by QR200. Every worker must now be paid a minimum monthly salary of QR600 plus a minimum QR200 as food allowance. If the allowance is not paid, food should be provided by the company at no extra cost.

�We will not ratify any demand letter seeking Nepalese workers if these terms are not fulfilled by the employers,� said Mishra. Several other Asian embassies have also fixed the minimum wages to be paid to workers from the respective countries and revised them from time to time to meet the rising cost of living in the country. 

[lollaerd]

Labour Dept seeks data on workers from firms
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
DOHA: The Ministry of Labour will start collecting the details of the workers of private companies from Sunday. The data collection is part of the Ministry�s decision to create an online data pool of the workers to keep tab on the possible violations of their rights by their employers.

The Ministry sources said CDs would be distributed to the companies that would in turn compile the relevant data regarding their employees, and submitted to the Ministry in the next few days. The employers will have to feed all the data regarding their employees, including their number, date of the monthly payment and the details of allowances etc. In the first phase, the Ministry would cover only the companies that have more than 500 employees. During the next eight months, it would cover all the private companies that employees not less than 50 workers.
The sources said, the new electronic data system will help the Ministry closely monitor whether the employers were protecting the rights of the workers, including the timely payment of their wages. The system would also help the Ministry deal with the issue of delayed payment and the employer-employee disputes.

[lollaerd]

Qatar supports all efforts to promote human rights: Official

Source ::: QNA: THE PENINSULA
Cairo: Chairman of the National Human Rights (NHRC), who presides over the specialised sub-committee at the Permanent Arab League Committee for Human Rights (PLCH), Dr Al Said Samikh Al Marri stressed Qatar�s keenness to enhance all Arab efforts on human rights field and increase awareness of them in the Arab region. In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Dr Al Marri said the Qatari approach is advancing through the NHRC, which operates to spread a human rights culture and cooperate with international organisations to exchange experiences.

He pointed out that Qatar will host in March the fifth meeting of the Euro-Arab Dialogue of National Institutions for Human Rights with the participation of many relevant Arab organisations. The meeting will focus on women�s rights and means of spreading the awareness of them, he said referring to the close cooperation with international and regional organisations in this regard. On the topics tabled on the agenda of the human rights Arab Subcommittee �meeting, currently under way in Cairo, Al Marri said the committee is discussing procedures on how to respond to Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as other topics related to the commemoration of the Arab Day for Human Rights.

He added that the Committee�s agenda also include items on the modernisation of the Arab Charter on Child Rights, in addition to the Arab plan to promote a culture of human rights, referring to the workshop, held in December, which outlined this plan for promoting human rights in the region. In this context, the NHRC Chairman noted that there are a number of recommendations, which were discussed, adding that the draft plan will be submitted to the PLCH during its meeting, due to be held in the Arab League Secretariat General�s headquarters next week.

[wilberforce]

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/132881-maids-labourers-made-to-wait-for-hours-at-airport.html

[wilberforce]

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61697.htm

http://www.qatarliving.com/node/941512

[paperback]

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=370690&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

[lollaerd]

The industrial area has to be cleaned up before WC 2022. It's in a shocking state. Workers living in decrepit rundown shacks and shanties. It is very 3rd world. The roads are a disaster, pot holes everywhere. This is a major clean up and repair job so I hope they do it and give these guys decent facilities, clinics, and cricket pitches. They deserve it, the real underdogs of this place.

[paperback]

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=410573&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

[lollaerd]

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/q/55-khalid-al-jaber/158015-stateless-in-the-gulf-case-is-still-in-hand.html

[wilberforce]

Seems like same old story as when I left. The Nepalis get the worst of it. Then the Bangladeshis and the Koreans. These guys get very low subsitance wages and a lot of them have to pay back money lenders in their home countries. What a vicious circle these poor guys are in.

[wilberforce]

US academic full of praise for �modern and friendly� Qatar
Agnes Perry Bell: experience of a lifetime

American academic Agnes Perry Bell, who helped organise a branch campus of Michael E DeBakey High School for Health Professions in Qatar, is all praise for the country.�It was an experience I would not change for anything. The people are very friendly. They�re very modern. Qatar is a small country, a small peninsula, but they are very advanced,� she told the Houston Chronicle.Bell is back in the US as the new principal of DeBakey High, Houston. She was assistant principal when she left in 2008 with then-principal Charlesetta Deason to start the DeBakey branch campus in Doha.At the time, Deason had spent the previous 18 years helping build a challenging math-and science-based college preparatory curriculum at the Houston high school, whose magnet program was inspired by the renowned heart surgeon and a partnership between the Houston school district and Baylor College of Medicine.
On the suggestion of a Washington, DC, ambassador, Deason wrote a proposal for the branch school that was selected by Qatar�s Supreme Education Council during an education reform initiative that previously recruited several American universities to the oil-rich country, including Texas A&M and a branch of Houston Community College.
It took encouragement from DeBakey himself to convince Deason to move to Qatar to start the new campus, Bell recalls.
�One of the main purposes of us being asked to go there and start a school was they had established all these college programmes, but they didn�t have students who could matriculate to them,� Bell said.
�When we arrived, the building was not ready. The school opened late and enrollment was very small. We had about 35 students the first year, and now we�re at about 180 starting this year, and we�re now serving children in grades 7-12,� she said.

Bell said the Qatar branch was accredited last semester by AdvancED, a global education company. Its first class graduated on June 15, with all 14 students accepted to universities in Qatar and beyond. Based on Stanford 10 scores, achievement gains average two grade levels per year.
�We were very excited about the results, especially since these kids only had two to three years. At DeBakey Houston, we have the kids for four years,� Bell said.The Qatar student body is extremely diverse. About 42% of students are from Qatar, and the rest are children of expatriates who work there.They come from all over the world, including the United States, Canada, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Egypt, Lebanon, Bosnia and Palestine.�When considering that, the challenge has been to accept kids with a diverse educational background and assimilate them into a very structured programme,� she said. Deason returns to DeBakey Qatar as its CEO following the summer break.

[battleshipb_b]

[idaho_potato]

[idaho_potato]

Workers being forced out of city camps Friday, 16 March 2012

DOHA: The Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning has started forced evacuation of construction workers living in residential areas, amid criticism about a lag in implementating the law banning such accommodations.The Rayyan Municipality, for instance, issued 250 administrative decisions over the past few days seeking forced evacuation of labourers staying in residential areas within the municipality, a local Arabic daily said yesterday.The law banning labour accommodations in residential areas came into force on November 1 last year, and the authorities have been facing several hurdles in implementing it, mainly due to the shortage of alternative facilities in the country.

After more than four months, the Ministry now seems to have started forced evacuation apparently after completing the necessary legal procedures stipulated in the law.

Inspectors with judicial powers have been conducting intensive raids to identify labour accommodations that have not yet complied with the law. The onus for evacuating the workers has been put on the landlords.
Inspectors can sue violators who would eventually face fines ranging from QR10,000 to QR50,000. The law has given the Ministry the right to forcefully evacuate a labour accommodation that is found to be violating the law, if such a move becomes necessary.If a violation is detected, the landlord will be issued a written warning to evacuate the building in 30 days. After the expiry of this period, the owner will be given 15 days to lodge a complaint, if any, with the Ministry against the decision.

If no action is taken on the complaint in 30 days, it would mean that it has been rejected and the authorities can go ahead with the evacuation plan.
The Ministry has the right to settle a violation through reconciliation as long as a court verdict is not issued against the violators.In the event of a forced evacuation, the municipality concerned will issue an administrative decision, which will be forwarded to the police for enforcement.Quoting a Ministry official, the daily said the municipal inspectors were not authorised to take action on violations of the labour law being detected during the inspection campaigns.For instance, a number of accommodations were found to be housing workers beyond the numbers permitted by the law. In keeping with the law each worker should have a minimum of 12 sqm space in a labour accommodation, said the daily.
�We can check the number of workers in an accommodation, but the Ministry of Labour is responsible for taking action if there is any violation,� said the official. The Peninsula



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