THE celebration of the International Labour Day, observed every year on May 1, this year was unique as workers in most part of the world remained under lockdown due to COVID-19 crisis.
Every year, this day witnesses huge rallies, events and protests. All these were cancelled this year due to the social distancing, so no slogan or chants could be heard or rallies were seen in the streets of major cities like Paris. Although, many activities were held through social media but this was not enough to match the enthusiasm that was visible in the past years.
As many expect post-COVID-19 will not be normal life as before the crisis, as millions of workers and bread winners of the poorest in the world have remained under lockdown for over two months.
In Qatar, this day witnesses every year a series of activities, including conferences, sports and entertainment programmes for workers and awareness campaigns for the labour force representing nearly 85 percent of the Qatar’s population. Therefore, utmost attention is given to this segment of the society.
As a part of precautionary measures and preventive efforts undertaken by the State of Qatar to limit the spread of COVID-19, educating workers under lockdown has become top priority for the government. Therefore, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs (MADLSA) launched awareness campaigns through which it has educated thousands of workers till now about coronavirus, under its ‘conscious’ campaign (Al Wai).
Amid fear and uncertainty of job losses and pay cuts, MADLSA reconfirmed that, workers in quarantine and isolation will be paid full salary without any deduction and it is mandatory for employers and companies to follow the policies. In order to help the workers in this context, the Ministry has provided a new hotline service on 92727 for receiving grievances of workers.
The government has allocated QR3bn to pay the salaries of workers and rents of the employers which could be utilised through banks to pay the wages of labourers and paying the rent due on companies, said Muhammed Hassan Al Obaidly, Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs at MADLSA, early this month.
Furthermore, the Ministry reaffirmed the responsibility of all employers to comply with the conditions and specifications for healthy and safe housing, and professional safety, to prevent the risk of infection.
The government has made it mandatory for employers to report any infection cases, raising the awareness of the workers using different languages and means on measures adopted by government and the company including usage of the hotline 16000 to report suspected cases.
