Legal consultation by Abdelaal A khalil (Legal Consultant) Thursday, 03 March 2011 01:24

Question: A person is studying to get his bachelor’s degree and at the same time works for a company five days a week. Now he is willing to work with another company in a functional training, with or without wage during his spare time in the same field of his studies. He wants to know is it divergent to the National Labour Law or not?

Primarily it is not permissible for a worker to work for others as the Labour Law No. (14) /2004 indicates that the worker is obliged not to work for another person, whether with wage or without wage. With the exception of it the Sponsorship Law No. 4 / 2009 pointed out that “it is prohibited for any natural or legal person to allow expatriates, who has been recruited for his work, to work with others or use the workers who are not under his sponsorship. The competent department may implement this law with an exception from the above that authorises the sponsor to lend his expatriate workers to another employer to work for him for a period not exceeding six months, renewable for another similar period as it may authorise the expatriate to work for some time for others in non-original working hours provided that he gets a written approval from his sponsor and in all cases it is obligatory to get the approval of the Ministry of Labour for the groups subject to the provisions of the Labour law.

In application of the foregoing, we find that the Labour Law did not provide for an employee’s right to work for others, but the law emphasised and obligated the worker not to work with others. While looking into the correlation of work on sponsorship it has been mentioned in the Sponsorship Law that the employer may lend the worker to other employer for a temporary period with the consent of the sponsor, worker and other employer in accordance with a framework prepared for this purpose by the Department of Labour and with regard to the work for some time for other party the Department of Labour has regulated this issue and allowed to those who has plenty of time and is willing to invest his time working for another employer in non-original working  hours provided he gets the approval of the sponsor. Therefore the questioner can apply before his sponsor for his desire to work with another employer and the final order is subjected to the approval of the Ministry of Labour according to the framework prepared for this matter.

Question: Shall the employee have the right to submit the resignation during the leave?

Qatari Labour Law No. 14/2004, concerning the termination of employment contract states that:

If the employment contract is for unlimited period, the parties thereto have the right to terminate it without any reasons. In such a case, the party which wants to terminate the contract shall notify the other party in writing as follows:

For labourers who are paid their wages annually or monthly, the notification shall be given before at least one month if the service period is five years or less. If the service is more than five years, the notice period shall be at least two months.

If the contract has been terminated without compliance with these periods, the party who terminates the contract shall pay to the other party a compensation equal to the labourer’s wage of notice period or the remaining part.

The resignation of the employee is considered as a termination of the contract by their side due to leaving the work. The Law states that: “if the contract has been terminated for any reasons, the employer shall pay the employee’s salary along with all due amounts before the end of the working day following the end of contract day, unless the employee has left the work without the notice provided for in this Law. In this case, the employer shall pay to the employee their salary along with their due amounts within maximum seven days of the date of leaving the work”.

The employee is considered as they are on duty during spending any leave provided for in Labour Law. The Law has restricted the right of the employer in terminating the employment contract during the leave period of the employee. It states that the employer shall not have the right to terminate the employment contract or notify the employee of terminating it during any of the latter’s leave provided for in this Law. The employer may not notify the employee of terminating the contract if the notice period ends during any leave”.

The law did not restrict the employee’s right to leave the work. Therefore, the employee may present their resignation during the leave period provided for in the law without prejudice to their entitlements during maximum period of seven days from the date of leaving the work due to the resignation.