New draft law mandates employment to nationals
A draft law proposing to mandate private, state and mixed sector companies to offer employment to citizens is ready and is at the final stages of being ratified before implementation.
Any failure to comply with the provisions of the proposed law will attract fines of up to QR100,000. The proposed law can increase the percentage of jobs to be reserved by private sector companies for nationals. The percentage, as specified by the State Cabinet is 20 percent.
When enforced, the law may lead to formation of a committee at the Labour Ministry with members of different ministries and the planning council. The so-formed committee will be responsible for framing and implementing job nationalization programme every year, as per local requirements.
The draft also proposes assigning judicial powers to labour inspectors to enter the premises of private company and check employment records to monitor if the company is abiding by the job nationalization regulations.
On implementation of this law, the private players will be obliged to employ Qatari doctors, business management graduates, teachers, computer and other professionals, apart from absorbing college and university dropouts.
The companies will also be required to send Qatari employees overseas for hands-on training and higher studies.
Posted on 6/2/2010