Qatar: Workers bear brunt as food industry flouts labour laws during Ramadan

As in most Muslim nations, Ramadan days in Qatar are a relaxed affair, with the federal government fixing working hours to 5 a day for its workforce and 6 hours for the personal sector. 

Most personal companies within the nation obey the principles, permitting staff to return late or depart early. However staff within the meals business find yourself working even tougher throughout Ramadan than throughout the remainder of the 12 months.

A salesman working at a grocery store within the capital Doha’s Najma neighbourhood informed Center East Eye his employer makes him and his 30-plus colleagues work additional hours via Ramadan. 

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“13 hours is the traditional working day. However in Ramadan, hours can get prolonged due to the patrons’ modified routine,” mentioned the person, who in widespread with a number of staff on this piece didn’t want to be recognized, citing issues for his or her jobs. 

Throughout Ramadan, many non-working buyers sleep after suhoor, the pre-dawn meal, till the noon prayer. Companies then develop into lively within the afternoon till iftar-time, after which there’s one other lull till the night-time Tarawih prayer. 

Many groceries and supermarkets are open till very late in the course of the holy month, as much as 2am. 

“Clients coming or not, now we have to be current on the store on a regular basis,” the salesperson mentioned. 

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No complaints

Like the principles round decreased working hours throughout Ramadan, many provisions within the Qatari labour legislation typically stay unenforced. The legislation says “staff are entitled to no less than sooner or later of relaxation per week. Friday is the widespread day of relaxation for all staff, besides those that deal with shift work. No worker ought to work two or extra Fridays in a row.”

Nevertheless, the salesperson and lots of different staff within the smaller grocery store chains, or standalone groceries, do not get the time without work to which they’re entitled. The salesperson, who shares a room with eight co-workers, says he solely has a time without work as soon as a month. 

“There’s not sufficient time and privateness to video-call the household at house,” he mentioned. 

Solely bigger grocery store chains, such because the Lulu Hypermarket and Almeera, have a tendency to offer staff their weekly time without work. When requested about its Ramadan working hours, Lulu’s regional supervisor Shanavas Padiyath mentioned there have been restrictions on what he may say.

In the meantime, a supervisor on the Al Rawabi Group, a wholesale meals supply firm with greater than 200 staff, informed MEE he works no less than an extra hour in Ramadan, however has no complaints.

‘It is pay-wash’

A store supervisor on the New Matar Grocery store, situated in Doha’s wholesale district of Abu Hamour, informed MEE that companies need to adapt to the patrons’ timing. 

“However we make it some extent that we equally distribute the burden among the many employees,” mentioned the supervisor.

A deliveryman at a grocery retailer in Al Azizia neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Doha, mentioned he was completely happy together with his QR2,500 ($686) month-to-month wage and 12-hour shift. “I get suggestions from the purchasers, too,” he mentioned. 

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Requested whether or not he had ever wished to resign, he mentioned he had generally thought of it throughout his time with the grocery store over the previous 12 months. 

“However I get greater than they promised me, QR1,500 ($412), within the contract,” he mentioned.

It is a tactic employed by many firms in Qatar in an effort to appease disgruntled staff.

“They provide greater than the minimal wage of QR1,000 ($274) and pay greater than what they provide,” mentioned Mohammed Ali, a long-time restaurant employee in Qatar. 

“The employers suppose it can defend them in opposition to complaints staff file on the labour ministry.” 

In labour disputes, one of many first issues the ministry appears to be like into is whether or not the wage quoted within the contract was credited or not within the Wage Safety System (WPS)-mandated checking account. 

“After they see the worker received greater than what he had been promised, his case will get weakened,” mentioned Ali. “It’s pay-wash that works properly in opposition to different office abuses and additional time with out pay.” 

‘Maltreatment, home violence, overwork’

Comparatively well-off staff can see their stint in an abusive office as a studying expertise. For instance, the deliveryman working in Al Azizia says he doesn’t thoughts sharing a room with 14 colleagues. 

“I’ll transfer on when my contract time is due [to expire] in a 12 months. I’ve a driving licence,” he mentioned. 

Not everybody in Qatar is entitled to have a driving licence, so possessing one is at all times a bonus whereas trying to find a brand new job.

Historically, Ramadan marks a month when Qatar’s home staff typically desert the nation, a truth acknowledged even by the nation’s inside ministry. 

In 2016, Migrant-Rights.org, a Gulf Cooperation Council-based advocacy organisation, quoted an official as itemizing “maltreatment, home violence, overwork in Ramadan and no time without work within the week” as causes for housemaids and drivers to run away from their workplace. Nevertheless, regardless of how abused the employees might have been, this implies of escape is a criminal offense generally known as “absconding” in most Gulf nations. 

Qatar’s e-government portal has its personal web page to report such people – entitled Submit Criticism In opposition to Home Employee.

‘Abusive office’

In the meantime, the meals business sector’s violation of rights shouldn’t be restricted to lower-paid staff. 

Faiz, an Indian with an MBA, who didn’t need to disclose his full title or the corporate he had labored with, mentioned firms attempt to exploit each loophole in contracts to take advantage of staff, even when they need to depart.

Three years in the past, Faiz discovered a job at the executive division of an organization, via his father’s connections. 

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By the point he was taken to the medical fee to lodge his biometric knowledge for a residency allow, an organization liaison officer had made him signal a contract printed in Arabic and Hindi – languages he barely reads. (Regardless of being one among India’s official languages, 56.37 % of Indians, most of them within the south, don’t converse Hindi.)  

Faiz requested the corporate liaison officer what was written within the contract. 

He was informed there was nothing to fret about and the contract interval was 5 years, however that was only a formality. 

In reality, Faiz didn’t get the job he had thought and was made as an alternative to work in gross sales, mainly working telephones. He labored for a month-to-month wage of QR1,500 ($412) for 12 hours a day over two years, after which he determined to resign. Whereas serving the one-month discover interval, he received a name from human sources saying he couldn’t depart earlier than 5 years’ service until he paid a QR4,000 ($1,099) “launch” charge.

“I paid them and escaped the abusive office,” mentioned Faiz, including he didn’t need to title the corporate as a result of the managers have contacts with different firms within the sector. 

“Not too long ago, whereas attending a job interview, the hiring managers mentioned they knew my previous bosses, and I don’t need to hurt my possibilities,” he mentioned.

The brand new regular

Rothna Begum, Human Rights Watch’s senior ladies’s rights researcher, informed MEE that Ramadan must be a time of generosity and compassion. 

“Qatari authorities ought to remind employers and firms that staff shouldn’t be pressured to work past eight hours a day and guarantee they abide by labour legal guidelines of offering relaxation breaks in the course of the day, and days off,” she mentioned.

“The authorities ought to institute mechanisms for staff to complain if they’re being pressured to work past such hours in opposition to their will and with out pay. And they need to maintain employers accountable for forcing staff to work past their working hours or making them work with out pay.”

Throughout the starting of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Qatari cupboard exempted the “shops of foodstuffs, pharmacies, and eating places engaged on deliveries and the contracting sector” from the decreased Ramadan working-hours guidelines. Some fear this exemption has now develop into thought of regular.

The Qatari labour ministry has a hotline for staff to register complaints, and final month the ministry shut down 24 recruitment firms for violating labour legal guidelines. It seems that they had been punished for incorrect recruiting practices, somewhat than work-related abuses. In 2021, the ministry performed 2,909 inspections and issued 558 warnings to firms.