Qatar- Ministry sets Nov 3 deadline to implement online wage system

Date

9/2/2015 1:53:10 AM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)

DOHA: Private companies have been given time until November 3 to comply with the mandatory online payment system for low-paid workers.

Companies’ failure to abide by the rule would make them liable to punishment including denial of work visas and refusal to endorse workers’ job contracts.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs responsible for implementing and supervising the new payment mode has urged all private companies to abide.

The Ministry said it will stop all transactions with non-complying entities unless they mend their ways and rectify their situation. “The deadline for the companies to comply with the WPS ends on November 3” said the Ministry on its website.

The new system called the Wage Protection System (WPS) will apply to all private companies—as all of them are covered by the labor law number 14 of 2004.

The Ministry said it would closely monitor the WPS in coordination with the banking regulator Qatar Central Bank (QCB).

The QCB has issued circulars to all banks and financial institutions in the country to open accounts for workers who have valid ID card. After opening their accounts banks must develop an automated system to transfer worker wages under the WPS said the Ministry.

This automated system should be such that the labor ministry and the Ministry of Interior should be able to actively monitor and ensure that all WPS-beneficiary workers are paid salaries. The ministries would simply insert a ‘Card Number’ of a company in their computer systems and immediately the screen would show the number of workers in its employ their salaries and whether or not they have been paid. The labor ministry has a dedicated inspection unit only to keep tab on companies and ensure they comply with the WPS. Inspectors rigorously trained in their job would catch violations if any and take the violating company to task.

All companies must pay their workers through the WPS within seven days of the due date. Delays will be punished and a reconciliation would be possible only if a complainant (worker) takes his complaint of delayed payment back said the Ministry.

Non-compliers can even be prosecuted as per the amendment to the labor law that were carried out this year to help implement the WPS.

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