(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Bigger construction and contracting companies that were to be part of the Wage Protection System (WPS) in its first phase of implementation were told in advance about the postponement of its launch to November 2.
One such company with over 1,500 workers said it came to know of the postponement from the "government" through its representative (mandoob) nearly a week ago.
The WPS is a mandatory online workers' wage payment system being launched by the government for private sector companies. It was scheduled for launch on August 18, but put off as some companies were not ready for it.
Asking that neither he nor his company be named, a senior officials told this newspaper that they have some 1,680 employees, including 1,500 workers who were to be part of the WPS. The remaining 180 are senior staff who have bank accounts with monthly salary transfers.
"We usually pay our workers before the 8th or the 10th of every month," said the official. "We pay our workers cash every 32 to 33 days.
"We were coordinating with our bank to be part of the WPS. There were some minor glitches and we told our accounts department to sort them out.
"However, as this was going on, we were told last week that the WPS was being put off to November 2," he said.
As reported earlier, the WPS is to be launched in phases.
Larger companies from the construction and contracting sector are to be part of WPS in the first phase.
A banker told this newspaper that banks were fully ready to launch the first phase and that accounts of a large number of workers had already been opened.
He said banks are happy about the WPS because that would help add to their revenue and income.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud Al Thani, Governor of the banking regulator, Qatar Central Bank (QCB), told local Arabic daily Al Arab in comments published yesterday that once the WPS is in force, banks will have to report to QCB every month only the names, ID numbers and bank account numbers of beneficiary workers, and not their salaries, and whether the amount is big or small.
Additionally, what is to be mentioned by banks is when those accounts were opened, said the daily.
Another banker told this newspaper that in the first phase of implementation of the WPS, only bigger construction and contracting companies are to be covered.
There is a classification of companies. Smaller companies will join in later, he said. Discussions regarding the WPS and company classifications with authorities concerned were concluded last February, he said. "So we were all set for a go. We were ready."
The banker said as he understood there are to be phases of WPS implementation in a way that first bigger construction and contracting companies are to be included and then companies from all other sectors, and later, mid-segment firms and a little later, smaller companies, including neighbourhood stores, among others.
Contacted, a small company official said they had not even been informed by the government or their bank about the WPS and whether "we needed to be part of it".
"We are construction material suppliers. We have less than 10 workers. No one has informed us about the WPS. The government hasn't asked us to be part of it," the official told this newspaper.
Al Arab said some companies want a review of the ways in which the WPS is to be enforced.
"We pay our workers when we have enough liquidity. We can't pay them on a fixed date," an official of a company was quoted by the daily as saying.
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