The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA) has put a new ruling that employees will have the right to switch jobs without getting a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from their employers if the company fails to pay their monthly salaries within seven days of the due date.
After a year of its introduction the Wage Protection System (WPS) is being hailed as a success. The WPS requires employers to directly transfer workers’ salaries into their specified bank accounts. Initially the workers had to reportedly face inconvenience due to a dearth of ATM machines, however, such issues have been resolved effectively by the authorities.
As workers have grown familiar with the use of ATM machines and other forms of online transactions, the workers have been able to reap the benefits of the WPS.
“In the beginning we faced some hurdles as there were delays in the opening of bank accounts and thereafter the crediting of the salaries to those accounts as our staff was not well-versed with the procedures and processes of digital banking, however, with time they learned the ropes and now everything is running smoothly and both employees as well as management are happy with the WPS”, said a mid-level manager of a Doha based construction company.
Receiving their salaries on time has always been a concern for the workers in Qatar, however, with the introduction of the WPS things have improved considerably and also a lot of ATM machines have been installed in the vicinity of the areas where the workers reside.
Similarly, firms that used to work on the basis of credit before the implementation of the WPS and which inadvertently led to the delay in the payments of the workers have been forced to infuse additional capital into the business as the WPS requires them to pay the salaries of the workers on time.
Social workers similarly are all praise for the WPS as it has benefited the workers particularly expat workers in a substantial way. Social workers have also organised campaigns to make low educated workers aware about the online banking and the use of ATM machines.
