The Department of Labour has been abolished by an Emiri Decision issued on Tuesday and instead of one, seven departments are being created at the Ministry of Labour to make it more efficient and enable it to enforce the labour law more effectively. A department known as the Department of Employment is being set up at the ministry to look after requests from companies to recruit foreign workers and approve work as well as family visas. The Department is being assigned the responsibility of framing regulations and procedures for issuing work permits to foreign workers. Local manpower agencies that have tie-ups with their counterparts abroad will be licensed and monitored by this department and will mediate to resolve disputes arising between these agencies and local client companies. This department will be additionally required to prepare, maintain and update a database on the workforce in the country. Labour conflicts or disputes between workers and their employers (private companies), on the other hand, will be dealt with by a department to be called the Labour Relations Department. If the department is not able to resolve a dispute between a company and its worker or workers, the onus of referring the matter to court will be on it. The department will attest job contracts between employers and workers and help raise awareness about the labour law among workers as well as companies by providing consultancy and periodically holding seminars and workshops. The department will have the authority to actively mediate between workers and employers and supervise union elections (only Qatari private sector employees are allowed to form unions on certain conditions). Inspections will be done by a separate department. Its job will be to conduct regular raids on workplaces, labour accommodations and work sites to make sure the labour law is not being violated, and in case of violations, bring the violators to book. It is this department that will be authorised to issue warnings to erring companies or initiate punitive action against them or refer them to the authorities concerned. A national workforce department is being set up to look after the job nationalisation drive and prepare policies and guidelines to encourage the employment of locals. A human resource management department, on the other hand, will look after employees of the ministry. Two other departments are being created to deal with information technology and finance and administration, respectively. The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent, H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on Tuesday issued an Emiri decision ordering restructuring of various ministries. The Labour Ministry was one of them. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=June2009&file=Local_News200906252633.xml

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