Yesterday, Qatar made its intentions clear about the protection of workers rights in the country by announcing a minimum wage system for the first time.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts has also signed bilateral accords with 36 countries, from which it draws most of its two-million-strong foreign workforce, to provide legal protection for workers, reported The Peninsula.

The minimum wage initiative and the agreements were announced by HE Issa Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi, Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA), during a meeting with foreign diplomats.

A minimum wage would aim to ‘meet the necessary needs of the worker to live at an appropriate humanitarian level,’ said the minister.

In February 2015, Qatar had introduced the Wage Protection System, designed to ensure workers receive their salaries electronically.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) welcomed the announcement by MADLSA and commended it for the importance it attaches to protection of the rights and duties of workers and employers, reported Gulf Times.

The committee praised the approval by the Council of Ministers on October 25 of a draft law amending the provisions of Article 7 of Law No 21 of 2015 regulating the entry and exit of expatriates and their residence amended by Law No 1 of 2017.

The law stipulates that the workers shall be discharged directly without the need to present a notice of leave except for a class of workers whose nature of work requires the prior notification of the employer.