Labour Laws

A new Labour Law no:14 was issued in May 2004 replacing the earlier Law no: 3 of 1962. The new comprehensive law provides for the protection of the rights of workers, both national and expatriate, and gives rights for Qatari individuals the right to form worker's association.

The New Labour Law has come into force from 6 January 2005. It is divided into 16 Chapters and 146 Articles. Brief areas of the Labour Laws are discussed below:

Minimum Pay
Qatar does not have any minimum fixed wages for most of the sectors.

Notice Pay
Article 49 of the Labour Law deals with Notice Pay which stipulates in the case of an indefinite duration service contract, the notice period is as follows:

• If the period of service is less than one year, the notification period shall be at least one week
• If the period of service is more than one year and less than five years, the notification period shall be at least two weeks
• If the period of service is more than five years, the notification period shall be at least one month

End of Service Benefits
Article 54 of the Labour Law states that every employee who has completed one year of continuous employment is entitled to End of Service Benefits .

The law stipulates that the End of Service Benefit must be a minimum of three weeks' salary for every year of employment. The last withdrawn Basic Salary will be used as base for calculations of End of Service Benefits.

Article 56 of the Labour Law also states that if an employer maintains a retirement system or a similar system which secures a better benefit for the employees than the End of Service Benefit (According to Article 54 of the Labor Law), then the employer will not be obliged to pay the End of service