24/11/2020
18 months of non-payment, Qatari company leaves workers in the lurch | Migrant-Rights.org
In April, two memos, this time signed by the vice-chairman Mohammed Abdulla Al Kaabi, attested that two months
salaries and wages would be paid within 14 days. That deadline passed as well, and another memo in May, this time
signed by the chairman, said salaries and wages would be settled by 10 June.
The company said a bank loan would be taken in order to settle the dues. However, with a police case led and the
arrest of the chairman, the bank loan was not sanctioned. The Madinat Khalifa police forwarded the case to the labour
department.
No way out
In 2016-17 there was a change in management. Until that point, the company had been hugely pro table with some
high pro le projects.
“The new management just messed it up. I have been with the company from the beginning – 13 years. I helped build
the company, and now I am le with no money, begging them to pay me,” says an employee from South Asia.
Workers protesting outside ITCC head o ce in June 2020
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The employees are now in a great dilemma. The company has made it clear employees can go back to work and their
payments would be made in instalments, or they can give up their claims and seek a job elsewhere or return home.
Most of their Qatar IDs (QID) have expired, and in order to change jobs, they will still need the company to reactivate it.
For those who have resigned, ITCC has o ered a settlement of 30% but demanded that they sign a paper stating they
have received all their entitlements. In desperation, 14 of them signed such a letter and received their diminished
https://www.migrant-rights.org/2020/10/18-months-of-non-payment-qatari-company-leaves-workers-in-the-lurch/
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