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Qatar: Embassy bails out Nepali workers |
| by: The Peninsula - 10/24/2008 |
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Doha - A large group of Nepali workers, whose salaries are pending for several months, will soon fly back home. Dr Surya Natt Mishra, Ambassador of Nepal, told this paper that the erring employer, with strong intervention of the Labour Department, has agreed to issue return tickets and clear their dues immediately.
The nearly 220 workers of the construction and trading company, have been running from pillar to post to get their dues cleared for the last two months. Their salary is pending from five to seven months, Dr Mishra said.
The ambassador said that the Mission held several rounds of discussions with the employer to settle the dues. Though the company officials had assured to clear the pending salaries at every meeting, they never kept their word. Later , the workers approached the Labour Department two months ago.
The Labour Department sent an inspection team to the company to take stock of the situation before summoning them. The company officials assured the Labour Department of clearing the dues and issuing the return tickets to the workers by last Sunday. With the company again failing to honour its agreement with the Labour Department, the workers approached the department yesterday, the ambassador said.
Dr Mishra said the labour department has referred the case to the Criminal Evidence Investigation Department (CEID).
"We have alerted the manpower companies in Nepal not to supply workers to this firm in the future. We are also receiving regular complaints from our people working in other firms regarding the violation of job contracts. These companies are also on our 'watch-list', Dr Mishra added.
The hapless workers arrived in Doha almost two years ago after paying QR5000-QR6000 to middlemen.
The Ministry of Labour has recently warned several companies against violating various labour laws and stopped dealing with them till they comply with all sections of the laws. The ministry inspectors had also conducted raids to identify the erring firms. Inspectors were deployed at company premises, works sites and accommodations to check whether health and safety requirements were fulfilled as per Qatar's labour law. Transactions with companies have been suspended for different periods in keeping with the type of violation. Other violations include failure to meet the health and safety rules for workers and even delayed and non-payment of salaries and dues. A number of labour camps were found to house more than the legally required numbers of workers in small rooms, and the living conditions were found to be abysmally poor.
Surprise raids were conducted at the companies so that they did not get the chance to temporarily fix the problem to deceive inspectors. |
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