Qatar's Labour ministry extends probation period to 9 months for foreign workers

MADLSA - The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs

The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs extended the probation period for domestic workers from 3 months to 9 months.

The Ministry announced the implementation of Minister’s decision No. (21) for the year 2021 to amend some provisions of Resolution No. (8) for the year 2005 regarding regulating the conditions and procedures for licensing the recruitment of domestic workers from abroad.

The new requirements require the licensee to provide a six-month extra probationary period for the recruit, beginning immediately after the three-month preliminary probation period has finished.

They also need the licensee to deliver a copy of the signed data and terms of work from the employer to the worker before he is hired.

In addition to providing private lodging and meals for the recruited workers, the employer is required to issue a work contract for the worker before his arrival in the nation, based on the same terms that the person agreed to labor under.

The ministry explained that the decision included obligating the licensee to guarantee an additional six-month probationary period for the user, starting immediately after the end of the three-month preliminary testing period, bringing the total probation period to 9 months including 15 percent of the total due amount, for each month the employee spent in the service of the employer during the additional probation period, with deduction of the value of government fees incurred by the office, in any of the following cases:

When the employer assaults the worker and violates any of the terms of the contract with the worker, the employee's refusal to work, the employee's quit, the employee's illness with a chronic disease, and the employer's right are all forfeited.

The competence of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs, represented by the Employment Department, is to study special requests for recruiting workers from abroad, granting licenses to recruit workers from abroad for others, and settling disputes that arise between recruitment agencies and employers in accordance with the Labor Law and the decisions implementing it, and referring them to the judiciary if they cannot be settled amicably.