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Qatar Labor
The discovery of oil brought wage labor to Qatar,
removing
many pearl divers, fishermen, and herders from reliance on
a
subsistence economy that was plagued with privation, debt,
and
other hardships and setting them in a new system of
relatively
steady labor for cash. But the work force did not consist
entirely of free males. In the early 1950s, there were
about
3,000 slaves, brought from Africa, in the peninsula. The
250
slaves who were working for Petroleum Development (Qatar)
in 1949
turned over 80 to 95 percent of their wages to their
owners.
(After the British political agent expressed his
disapproval of
the practice to the shaykh, the ruler decreed reluctantly
that
slaves could keep 50 percent of their wages.)
Because there were no labor regulations in the 1940s
and
1950s, hours, conditions, and wages varied widely. Some
workers
were paid less than one rupee per day, others received as
much as
four rupees per day. (In contrast, a man working on a
pearl boat
might earn only sixty rupees in six months.) Sometimes
overtime
was compensated; at other times it was not. In the late
1930s and
into the 1940s, workers put in seven-day weeks, with only
one day
off per month. Workers were often dismissed for minor
infractions
and endured humiliating treatment and difficult, dangerous
conditions to hold their jobs.
The special skills of the pearl divers were used to
help set
up offshore rigs. Other workers were employed as drivers,
cooks,
and houseboys for British personnel, and still others were
employed as roustabouts. There were four levels of
salaries and
amenities in Petroleum Development (Qatar). At the top
were the
British engineers and foremen, next the clerks (mostly
Indians),
then the drivers, and then the laborers at the bottom of
the pay
and accommodation scale. Local merchants acted as
representatives
of the oil company and collected one rupee from Qataris
and forty
to fifty rupees from foreigners for work certificates.
At the outset, the unskilled laborers were Qataris and
other
gulf Arabs. They had frequent disagreements with the oil
company's management, most of whom were non-Qataris, and
some
disagreements flared into strikes. Early strikes focused
on
wages, conditions, and benefits. In addition, the shaykh
often
encouraged strikes to pressure concessions from the oil
company
at the times he was negotiating new contracts.
During one strike in 1951, Qatari workers opposed those
from
Dhofar (in present-day Oman). To resolve the matter, the
Dhofaris
were deported (a solution to labor disputes that, along
with
imprisonment, continued to be used in the early 1990s).
Shaykh
Ali ibn Abd Allah freed the slaves in 1952 and paid 1,500
rupees
each to 660 of them. A major strike in 1955 by Qatari
workers
induced the shaykh to form a Qatari riot squad to be used
against
them. In 1956 well-organized oil workers joined opposition
forces
in demonstrations against the regime and against the
British. In
response, the government inserted clauses in labor
contracts
banning political activity.
In 1959 a labor department was established to deal with
oil
workers. In 1962 a labor law was enacted that gave
preference in
hiring first to Qataris, then to other Arabs, and finally
to
other foreigners. Strict controls existed on foreign
workers,
whose visas stipulated that they must work for a specific
Qatari
sponsor at a specific job. In practice, there was some
fluidity
in employment. Trade unions were banned, but Qatari
workers had
workplace-based organizations, known as workers'
committees, that
dealt with grievances. The country's labor court was the
first in
the gulf. The government has sought to encourage Qataris
to take
jobs in the industrial work force (the process of
"Qatarization"). In 1993, however, the majority of
laborers and
middle-level employees, were foreigners.
All foreign workers require sponsorship by a Qatari,
some of
whom illegally charge their employees high fees for
renewing
sponsorship. Other abuses include breach of contract and
physical
or sexual abuse.
Regulations govern safety in the workplace, but these
are
unevenly enforced. The labor force represents 42 percent
of the
population, with 7 percent of the force made up of women.
Those
women who work outside the home are often teachers,
nurses,
clerks, or domestic servants. In-service industries absorb
69
percent of the work force, industry 28 percent, and
agriculture 3
percent.
Data as of January 1993
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