Labour Committees: insufficient to guarantee access to justice for all victims

The harsh reality is that six years following its introduction, the Wage Protection System is still failing to secure regular payment for thousands of workers, who are then forced to take their cases to court. Organizations working on migrant workers’ issues note the ineffectiveness of the system to prevent wage theft or trigger meaningful action to stop it.115 For instance, Human Rights Watch documented the cases of hundreds of workers from two different companies who suffered months of unpaid salaries despite the authorities being aware of their case.116

Despite clear recommendations from a 2019 review commissioned by MADLSA urging the government to strengthen the Wage Protection System to ensure “that various forms of non-compliance can be identified and addressed more quickly, reducing prolonged instances of non-payment”,117 more work is required for this system to reach its full potential.

One of the most promising reform introduced by Qatar in the early stages of its reform process was the establishment of the Committees for the Settlement of Labour Disputes (Labour Committees) in March 2018. The judge-led “fast track” mechanism aimed to improve access to justice by settling labour disputes within three weeks of a worker filing a complaint. If companies fail to pay workers who win their case, a fund was set up to pay them directly and recoup the money from the companies. 118 Domestic workers were also allowed to bring complaints before the Committees, giving them access to justice for the first time in Qatar.

While these tribunals, especially compared to the initial labour courts, have to some extent improved the speed with which workers’ complaints are considered, they have failed to deliver fully on their promises.

Workers wait at the Ministry of Justice to sign documents stating, falsely, that they have received their salaries. Qatar, March 2013. © Amnesty International

115 Interviews conducted remotely and in Qatar, September – October 2021. 116 Human Rights Watch, Qatar: Wage Abuse Action Shortchanges Workers, 22 December 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/22/qatarwage-abuse-action-shortchanges-workers 117 ILO Progress report 2020, pp. 1-2. 118 Amnesty International, Qatar: New fund could bring hope to exploited migrant workers, 31 October 2018, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ news/2018/10/qatar-new-fund-could-bring-hope-to-exploited-migrant-workers/