Manama: Delayed payment of salaries, denial of flight tickets, non-payment of end-of-service benefits and vacation allowance were the most common complaints received by Qatar's labour ministry during the first quarter of 2010, an official report has indicated.
Payment delay comprised 93% of the total complaints, while denial of flight tickets amounted to 91.2%, and end-of-service benefits constituted 88.7% of the total number of complaints, Qatari daily Gulf Times reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, 64.3% of the complaints received during the first quarter were settled, 20.2% were closed either because the complaint was out of the labour ministry jurisprudence or the parties did not follow up on the case.
Among other types of grievances, 65 workers complained about termination of services, 28 about work injury, 22 about accommodation and 1,890 about overtime allowance.
Construction workers formed the largest segment of complainants with 63.4%. Those in the wholesale and retail sectors made up 13.8% of the cases and workers in other sectors accounted for 22.8%.
The number of complainants in the first quarter of 2010 increased by 28% compared with the fourth quarter of last year, the report added.
The report said that 962 licences were issued to women under the sponsorship of relatives.
Foreigners make up around three fourths of Qatar's total population of 1.5 million people.
