Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Qatar, Ambassador Greta C Holtz; Ambassador of Canada to Qatar, H E Stefanie McCollum; and other participants during the webinar.
Doha: The job contract for domestic workers has set relations between employer and domestic worker in a manner that protects rights of both parties based on the provision of the Labour Law No. 15 of 2017.
“The job contract explains working hours of domestic help, weekly off days, overtime, sick leave and liabilities of employer,” said Shaikha Mohammed Al Khater, Director of International Labour Relations Department at MADLSA.
Al Khater was speaking in a webinar on ‘Labour Reforms and Foreign Domestic Workers in Qatar’ jointly organised by the embassies of US and Canada yesterday to mark International Women’s Day.
“The Ministry is continuing creating awareness on different levels about the domestic law and rights and liabilities of domestic helps,” said Al Khater.
In June 2020, the Ministry organised a programme to mark the International Domestic Workers Day. “The Ministry also produced different awareness materials such as video message on the rights of housemaids, guidebooks, pamphlets for domestic workers and employers in cooperation with ILO and other organisations,” Al Khater added.
She said that the pamphlets on the rights of housemaids were prepared in 10 languages containing guidance, details of information in simple ways.
“Now we are running an awareness campaign to provide suitable work environment for this sector.
We are monitoring the manpower agencies and organised workshops to educate them about the laws and regulations and enhance their performance,” said Al Khater.
To protect the rights health of domestic workers during the outbreak of COVID-19, Al Khater said that the Ministry launched a text messaging campaign under which over 1,350,000 text messages were sent to housemaids in 16 languages and 92,620 text message to employers. A hotline service was also launched to receive complaints and remarks by domestic workers and employers round the clock.
Alix Nasri, Technical Specialist at International Labour Organization (ILO) Project Office in Qatar, said that the MADLSA has just introduced new version of standard employment contract for domestic workers which is a great achievement.
She said that the new employment contract equalises the rights between domestic workers and workers covered by the Labour Law.
“The key advancement in new contract is that it focuses on importance to have full transparency on tasks on both for domestic workers and employer which reduce miscommunication in the employment relationship,” said Nasri.
She said that the new version also brings equality between domestic workers and workers under Labour Law in different areas. “The first one is that it specifies clearly the regular working hours with a maximum of two hours over time and how this additional hour is compensated on the same level to other workers under Labor Law,” she added.
She said that the new contract also specified that domestic workers take same sick leave benefits like any other workers in Qatar which is a key improvement. “The new standard contract brings clarity that both employers and domestic workers can terminate the contract based on a reasonable notice,” said Nasri. She said that the new version of standard contract has already been shared with private recruitment agencies and Qatar Visa Centers. “We will be working in the coming days to create a system of digital authentication for contract of domestic workers on the pattern contracts of other workers,” said Nasri.
Zara Parvez from Hamad Bin Khalifa University moderated the webinar. The webinar was attended by Ambassador Greta C Holtz, Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Qatar; Ambassador of Canada to Qatar, H E Stefanie McCollum; Elizabeth Tang,
General Secretary International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF); Hala Ali from Legal Department of National Human Rights Committee (NHRC); and Vani Saraswathi, Editor at Large and Director of Project, Migrant-Rights.Org.
Shaikha Mohammed Al Khater said that Qatari women registered their strong presence in different sectors with the support of political leadership. This came following Qatar National Vision 2030, laws and regulations which ensure equality and non-discrimination and support equal opportunity and empowering women by involving them in the journey of the development of Qatar, she added.
Al Khater said that Qatari women occupy a number of ministerial portfolio and key positions in the ministries, judiciary, public prosecution, the Shura Council.
