When the Human Resources law was handed over to the committee concerned in the cabinet for amendment, we civil servants felt optimistic about the amended law that was warmly and carefully welcomed by different social segments in the country. This was followed by many relevant promises and official statements that made everybody believe that the law was about to be issued, auguring well for the nation’s civil servants and citizens for whom salaries are very importance because they affect the standard of living.
Two years have already passed and everybody is waiting for the law to be issued. The expected amendments to the law are also being dealt with in complete secrecy as if we are in an extended journey in search of treasure.
It was said that some government ministries and institutions expressed reservations to some of the amendments of the law. It was also said that other ministries and institutions have not submitted their suggestions about the needed amendments for the law yet, whereas a third category of ministries and institutions locked horns over the selection of their representatives in the law amendment committees.
The fact is that issuing of the law should not be held hostage to any of the above hurdles. This is especially true after the parties concerned were given enough time to carry out their job as far as the amendments of the law are concerned.
The Human Resources Law for the year 2009 is still in effect. Some amendments can be introduced to this law. It can function as an alternative that can protect the rights of Qatari civil servants until the promised human resources law is issued in full. This should be done so that we can use all this lost time and also prevent anybody from using the proposed amendments in ways that only serve their personal interests, while Qatari civil servants suffer in silence over
the years.
Until the new law is issued and rescued from being frozen and apart from its expected amendments, I here suggest some more articles that can protect the rights of Qatari civil servants and give them more career security. These articles can also encourage the civil servants into more work and production. I call on including the following articles in the new law, for which we wait on tenterhooks:
• Civil servants must be given promotions and perks in complete integrity and without favouritism from bosses.
• Workers should be given their full salaries when they have to leave Qatar to accompany any of their relatives under different emergencies.
• Nationals who were forced to retire should be brought back to work, especially if they are capable of working.
• Workers must be given their full end-of-service financial rewards, especially in the cases of workers who were unfairly deprived of these rewards.
• Organising litigation and relations among civil servants in all administrative positions in ways that protect the rights of these civil servants and prevent any violations in this regard.
• Putting the special needs of women and mothers into account in the light of the traditions of our society that is Islamic.
I am confident that decision-makers and officials in our country will honestly deal with these legitimate demands of the nation’s civil servants as they have always done in the past.
