Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Qatar (Ratification: 1998)

Articles 1(1) and 2(1) of the Convention. Freedom of public officials to leave their service. The Committee previously noted that pursuant to sections 161 and 162 of Law No. 8 of 2009 on Human Resources Management, civil servants may submit a request for resignation, which must be approved within 30 days. However, the approval may be postponed for a similar period of 30 days and the civil servant shall continue to work. The Government previously stated in this respect that these provisions are inherent to the nature of the civil service, and aim at ensuring continued operation of the service. The Committee requested the Government to indicate whether, for reasons related to the interests of the service, the approval of the resignation may be postponed for various periods or only for two periods of 30 days.

The Committee notes the information in the Government’s report on the measures it is taking to ensure the amendment of section 161 of Law No. 8 of 2009 on Human Resources Management in order to bring it into conformity with Articles 1 and 2 of Convention No. 29. In this regard, the Government indicates that it has prepared a Bill on Human Resources Management which is currently going through the legislative channels in view of the importance of amending this provision on accepting resignations. Thus, the new section will read as follows: “A resignation shall be accepted within 30 days as of the day on which it is submitted. Otherwise, it will be considered as having been accepted by law.”

The Committee takes note of this information and once again recalls that the effect of statutory provisions preventing termination of employment of indefinite duration by means of notice of reasonable length is to turn a contractual relationship based on the will of the parties into service by compulsion of law, and is thus incompatible with the Convention. The Committee therefore trusts that the necessary measures will be taken to ensure the amendment of section 161 of Act No. 8 of 2009 on Human Resources Management in order to bring the legislation into conformity with the Convention. Pending the adoption of such measures, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on the application in practice of sections 161 and 162, indicating the number of cases in which resignations were refused, the grounds for refusal and the total period during which the resignations were refused.