DOHA: An employee can change his job even during the probation period provided the new employer is willing to compensate for the recruitment and other expenses of the employee which should not exceed the wage of two months.
This is one of the several guidelines issued by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs as part of the labour reforms announced this week, which has abolished the need for No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for employees wanting to change their jobs.
An employee who leaves the company without prior notification will be banned for one year from returning to work. The Ministry also said it would not charge any fee from the employee for its services for job change. In another significant reform, domestic workers can terminate their contracts at any time without giving notice.
The Ministry has also requested companies to be lenient in applying no-competition clauses to protect the interests of employees.
The Ministry has also published a seven-step procedure to be followed by employees who want to change jobs.
The seven steps are:
1- Fill out an application form at the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs website (www.adlsa.gov.qa) to change the employer.
2- Attach a certified copy of the academic qualification and the licence to practise specialised professions from the concerned authorities in the state.
3- Attach the health insurance for the applicant who is over 60 years old.
4- The request is studied by the competent department at the Ministry and a response is given within a week from the date of submitting the required documents.
5- In case the application is approved, the applicant gets a text message explaining the legal notice period, and in case of rejection, the reason is mentioned.
6- After the legal notice period has expired, the new employer must do a work contract for the worker through the Digital Contract Authentication Service https://elcr.adlsa.gov.qa.
7- The last step, after the completion of the contract authentication, you must access the electronic services of the Ministry of Interior through Metrash2 or the Ministry of Interior website to complete the procedure for changing the employer.
The following are the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Administrative Development and Labour for the change of jobs:
It is now possible for all workers in the State of Qatar to change their jobs without the need for an NOC at any stage from their employer, and these changes represent a great leap in labour reforms in Qatar. The objective is to move towards a knowledge-based economy as stated in the Qatar Vision 2030.
The new laws and procedures will immensely will help the private sector by being able to recruit experienced employees from the local market and it will help employees to improve their career prospects by choosing companies and positions that reward their talent and experience.
Private sector
There are several procedures that the worker must follow if he wants to change the employer. He/she must first inform the current employer to terminate the work contract through the online system of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs.
The worker should continue to work with the current employer until the notice period ends, and if the worker spends two years or less with the employer, the notice period is one month, and if the worker spends more than two years with the employer, the notice period is two months.
Notice period
If the worker stops working before the end of the notice period, he must pay the employer a compensation equal to his basic wage for the notice period or the remaining period, and the amount is calculated as equivalent to the basic wage for the remaining period of the notice period.
For example, if the basic salary is QR1,500 riyals and if the worker stopped working two weeks before the end of the one-month notice period, the worker has to pay the employer QR750 in order to legally terminate the contract.
Change of employer during probation period
Regarding the possibility of changing the employer during the probation period, the work contract may stipulate that the worker will be under probation for a period agreed upon by the two parties, provided that it does not exceed six months from the date of commencing work.
A worker may not be put under probation more than once with the same employer, and the worker may terminate the work contract during the probation period, provided that the current employer is notified at least one month before leaving work through the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs’s digital system, and if he wants to change job, the new employer must compensate the current employer for part of the recruitment fees and the value of a one-way ticket in the percentage agreed upon between the current and new employer.
However, this amount may not exceed the wage of two months of the current basic wage, and the amount of compensation must be agreed between the new and old employer
Termination of the employment contract
There are several procedures that workers must follow to terminate the work contract and leave Qatar, and in case he leaves Qatar without submitting a notice or completing the notice period, he will not be able to return to work in Qatar for a full year, and to avoid this, the worker must follow the procedures, and inform the employer via the electronic system of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Social Affairs and Labour, and work during the notice period.
Employers must refrain from including non-competition clauses, except in specific circumstances in which the nature of the work permits the worker to access customer information or work secrets.
This means that after the termination of the contract, the worker cannot compete with the employer or work in any institution within the same economic sector. The non-competition clause may not last for a period of more than a year from the date of termination of the contract.
If the worker has completed at least one year of work and the work contract has not been terminated because the worker has committed a violation stipulated under Article 61 of the Labour Law, the employer must pay the worker the end-of-service benefit, annual leave allowance that he did not take, and any other benefits stipulated under Labour Law No. 14 of 2004 and the signed work contract, and the employer must continue to provide food and housing or food and housing allowances until the date the work ends.
If the employer wants to terminate the worker’s contract immediately without a notice period, and if the employer terminates the contract without considering the notice period, he is obliged to pay the worker a compensation equal to his basic wage for the notice period or the remaining part thereof, and this amount is calculated as equivalent to the basic wage for the remaining period of the notice period. In case the worker decided to return to the home country, the employer must pay the cost of the return ticket.
If the employer asks the worker to stop working before the notice period expires, he must pay him an amount for each day of the notice period in which the worker was asked not to work, and the amount is calculated in proportion to the basic wage for the remaining period of the notice period.
The employer must complete the procedures for returning the worker to his country, including the return ticket to the country, within a period not exceeding two weeks from the date of the contract expiry. If the worker joins another company before leaving the country, the obligation to return him to his home country is transferred to the new employer.
Change of employer
About the procedures that the new employer must follow to employ a local worker, once the Ministry approves the worker’s request to change the employer, the employer receives a short text message from the Ministry confirming this and the employer must start the procedures of the work contract with the new worker by means of the multilingual work contract digital attestation system after filling in the information and the employer prints the work contract that is signed by the two parties, after which the signed copy and all documents are uploaded to the digital platform and after the Ministry confirms that the work contract has been attested and the new employer must pay the contract certification fees and the documented work contract is automatically transferred to the online system of the Ministry of Interior for the purpose of issuing the ID card, and he must provide the worker with a copy of the documented work contract. The administrative procedures necessary to change the employer are free of charge at the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs.
Domestic workers
As for workers covered by special laws, rules have been defined for terminating the work contract for domestic workers and they are considered the same as those applied to workers covered by Labour Law No. 14 of 2004 and these rules appear in the updated standard work contract for domestic workers.
The probationary period for domestic workers may not exceed three months and domestic workers may not spend more than one probationary period with the same employer, and domestic workers may terminate the work contract at any time during the contract period without notice and with preservation of their right to end-of-service bonus and relative annual leave entitlements in addition to a return ticket to the home country, in any of the cases stipulated in Article 17 of Law No. 15 of 2017.
The employer of domestic workers may also terminate the work contract without notification and without giving the worker an end-of-service gratuity for the year of disbursement if the employee breaches any of his obligations mentioned in the work contract or established under Law No. 15 of 2017.
Agricultural sector workers
The same rules for ending and changing work that apply to workers in the private sector and stipulated in Labour Law No. 14 of 2004 apply to agricultural and cattle workers and fishermen.
Procedures for employees
If the worker in the private sector is subject to the provisions of Law No. 14 of 2004, there are a number of procedures that must be followed to change the employer, where the current employer must be informed of the desire to terminate the contract through the electronic system for administrative development and during the period that elapses between the date of informing the employer and the date of leaving work within the notice period, and work for the current employer must be continued during this period.
In case the worker spent two years or less with the employer, the worker must inform the employer one month before the date of leaving work, and if he has spent more than two years with the employer, he must notify him two months before the date of leaving work.
An employer changing application must be submitted via the electronic notification system to the Ministry of Administrative Development, accompanied by a copy of the contract documented with the previous employer and a letter in Arabic from the new employer confirming the employment of the worker directed to the Ministry of Administrative Development.
After receiving a text message from the Ministry confirming the change of the employer, the new employer must be asked to begin the contract procedures through the digital authentication system, and then the new employer must enter the Metrash website to apply for a new Qatari ID card.
Conditions of departure
If the worker wants to leave Qatar during the probation period, he must inform the employer via the electronic system within two months, and if he wants to leave without ending the notice period, he must pay compensation to the employer equivalent to his basic wage, provided that the amount does not exceed two months’ salary.