Qatar Labour Law: Amendment To Article 66

Amendment

Article 66 of the Qatar Labour Law No.(14) of 2004 (Qatar Labour Law) was recently amended by Law No.(1) of 2015 (the Amendment). Whereas the article previously required that salaries (Salaries) and any other sums to which an employee is entitled under his/her contract of employment were paid to an employee's account at a bank agreed upon between the parties, or to an agent appointed by the employee, payment will now need to be made directly from the employer's local Qatari account into a Qatari account in the name of the employee. The new system effectively creates a Qatar to Qatar based transaction between the employer and employee. The Amendment applies to employees whose employment is governed by the Qatar Labour Law.

The substantive body of Article 66 remains the same under the Amendment such that Salaries must continue to be paid in Qatari currency. Further, Salaries of employees employed on an annual or monthly basis must be paid at least once in every month; Salaries of all other employees must be paid at least every two weeks. The material change is that once the Amendment takes effect, an employer will be obliged to transfer the Salaries directly into employees' Qatari accounts within the designated time periods.

When will the amendment take effect?

We understand that the Amendment will be enforced from 18 August 2015, six months after it was first issued on 18 February 2015 rather than the time period stated in the Amendment, being six months from the date of publication of the new law in the Official Gazette.

Given we are in the introductory phase of a new system, we understand that the Labour Department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will provide sufficient time to those companies who as yet have not been able to implement the necessary measures to ensure compliance. This goes alongside our understanding that the Labour Department plans to enforce the Amendment in various stages, with companies employing five hundred or more employees being the first to come under close scrutiny, followed by companies with between one and five hundred employees and finally companies with one hundred or less employees.

Until the Amendment has been fully implemented it is difficult to confirm with any real certainty how the changes will operate in practice on a day to day basis. However, we would advise all employers to put measures in place to ensure compliance as soon as is practicable and where, for whatever reason...

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