24/11/2020
18 months of non-payment, Qatari company leaves workers in the lurch | Migrant-Rights.org
ITCC worked on several high pro le projects including the Gharafa stadium (for the Qatar Olympic Committee), Al
Rayyan Palace, Katara shopping mall as well as a few for Ashghal and Kahramaa, which are government agencies.
The chairman of the company, Abdulla Khalaf Mansoor Al-Kaabi, was jailed following a police complaint in April, but
some of the employees say he may have been released since. Additionally, the arrest did little to alleviate the problems
for the 450 workers and roughly 100 sta . While the former have not been paid for nine months, the latter have not
been paid for nearly a year. Due salaries alone amount to about QR1.3 million (USD357,000), with nal settlements of
those who have resigned amounting to another QR900,000 (USD250,000).
In October 2018 Qatar set up the Workers Support Insurance Fund in order to pay workers without delays and recoup
payment from employers later. However, this procedure has not been executed in this case.
Qatar: Law No. 17 of 2018 Establishing the Workers’ Support and Insurance
Fund
The fund aims to support, ensure and provide care for workers, guarantee t
rights and provide a healthy and safe working environment for them. In
particular, it is tasked with (Art. 1):
Providing the needed and sustainable nancial resources for the suppor
and insurance of workers.
Paying the workers’ bene ts, which are settled by the labour dispute
settlement committees, and subsequently reclaiming those amounts fro
the employer.
Contributing to the provision and establishment of playgrounds,
entertainment venues, or workers’ accommodation, in coordination with
relevant authorities.
The fund shall receive for its annual budget 60% of the fees collected for
workers’ permits and their renewal (Art. 4).
Migrant-Rights.org spoke to several a ected employees, all of whom say they have exhausted every avenue available to
le complaints, none of which yielded any results. This is not the rst time that such protests were held. In June 2019, a
few hundred workers protested outside of ITCC’s o ces because they had not been paid for six months. The police
intervened and advised them to not return to work until they were paid. Over the next two months, they received their
six months salary in instalments.
At this point, the company had two ongoing projects, both prestigious – Manateq (whose chairman is Ali bin Ahmed
Al-Kuwari, the Minister of Commerce and Industry) and Al Meshaf Health Centre (under Ashghal).
According to ITCC employees, all of the clients have paid on time, but work on both these projects have in fact been
delayed, drawing penalties.
Salary payments stopped again from November 2019. Labour and sta staged regular protests over the next few
months. In March 2020, a memo signed by the company chairman provided a schedule of payment, as per which all
dues were to be settled by May 2020. Last year, 50 sta had resigned. No promises were made on their nal settlements.
MR has reviewed all of these documents.
https://www.migrant-rights.org/2020/10/18-months-of-non-payment-qatari-company-leaves-workers-in-the-lurch/
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