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Law No.(8) of 2009 promulgating the Human Resources Management Law (Law) became effective on 01 April 2009 and governs the employment of the civil servants of Qatari Ministries, other government agencies and public authorities and institutions (each a Government Entity). The Law, which repeals all previous laws governing such employment, specifically excludes from its jurisdiction various members of the judiciary, employees of the Amiri Diwan, State Audit Bureau, diplomats and consular corps, university lecturers and Qatar Petroleum employees to the extent that their various internal employment systems and arrangements may or may not incorporate the Law or its various provisions. This article focuses on the certain material provisions of the Law which may be of general interest. Planning and Organisation The Law sets out in detail the way in which each Government Entity should organise itself in relation to, amongst other things, budgets, job creation, job description, categorisation, grading structures, start dates, recruitment including nationality and gender priority, appointment and the approval processes in relation to each. In addition the Law sets out an overriding framework or context within which the Government Entities should plan and organise their employees, being the optimal use of available human resources to achieve the entity's objectives, the development of the individual capabilities of the entity's employees, the creation of a secure and fair work environment for employees to motivate productivity, creativity and cooperation and to use the same to develop, through engagement with employees, appropriate work practices. Appointment Appointment of employees can be achieved in various ways including by Amiri decree or a decision of the authority concerned with such appointment; a standard or usual form contract; a special form contract, a renewable provisional lump sum contract for a period not exceeding six months or any other arrangements to be put forward by a Government Entity and approved by the competent body for such approval. Non Qatari employees are appointed under an employment contract. To be appointed an employee must be a Qatari national, not less than eighteen years of age, appropriately qualified, including having satisfied the individual Government

Entity entrance requirements, be reputable, medically fit and must not have been previously dismissed from a position or guilty of a crime. It is worth noting that in some circumstances the latter requirements relating to dismissal and sentencing can be waived by the competent body of a Government Entity and that where an appropriately qualified Qatari national is not available to be appointed, alternative individuals will be considered being in order of priority: sons of Qatari women married to non-Qataris, non-Qataris married to Qatari nationals, Gulf Cooperation Council nationals, Arab country nationals and finally all other nationals. Probation Probation will initially be for a three month period. This initial period can be renewed for further three month periods until such time the employee is considered competent. Where an employee is not considered competent his or her employment will be terminated. Once competence has been confirmed an employee will be deemed permanently appointed and may qualify for end of service benefits after he or she has worked for a full year, the probation period being included as part of such qualification. During the probation period an employee may terminate his or her employment by giving at least fifteen days notice. Compensation Once permanently employed an employee will receive a compensation package commensurate to his or her grade. The law sets out the various components which make up employee compensation packages. Each component, its applicability, value and frequency of payment will depend on various factors including an employee's grade, job title, marital status and number of dependant family members. The main components of an employee compensation package includes, basic salary which may be increased as a result of good performance over time, performance evaluation percentage increment, social bonus, housing allowance, transportation allowance, supervisory role allowance, furniture allowance (one off), representation allowance and per diem payments for employees representing the Government Entity outside Qatar, to include study days allocated to the employee before and after such representation, airplane flight tickets, luggage allowance, overtime allowance, honesty allowance, and telephone allowance. It is important to note that the payment of some components will result in the non payment of others and/or net payments being made. End of service benefits are payable and provided for in the Law. Employee pension benefits are provided for under separate legislation and regulations. Holiday The Law sets out the various periods of leave which employees may either take as of right (eg. periodic or holiday leave); by virtue of their gender (eg. nursing and iddah or waiting leave); marriage status (eg. marriage or marriage accompaniment leave); or religion, (eg. pilgrimage leave). Additional leave periods include casual, sick, condolence, spouse or patient accompaniment, exceptional or emergency, study, examination and unpaid. All leave, with some exceptions (eg. unpaid leave), is compensated in full. No leave may be taken during probation.

Periodic or holiday leave is probably the largest leave component, although iddah or waiting leave may be for a period up to four months and ten days. Iddah is where a Muslim female employee is given leave on the death of her husband. Employees, depending on their grade, can take between thirty and forty-five days periodic leave. Employees must take at least half their annual leave each year; taking full leave entitlement is encouraged by the payment of a periodic leave bonus equal to one month's salary. Leave should not be taken in more than three tranches. Any festival or sickness leave which falls within an employee's periodic leave shall be compensated for by an equal number of days being added to the employee's basic periodic leave allocation. Ultimately an employee's leave will be governed by the work requirements of the Government Entity for which he or she work. Resignation An employee may resign from his or her employment in writing. The competent authority to which the employee resigns will consider the resignation within a thirty day period. If no answer is provided within that period the notice will be deemed to have been accepted. Acceptance may be deferred within the thirty day period for work matters. An employee will remain employed until such time as his or her resignation is accepted. Discipline and Termination The Law sets out the internal disciplinary processes which the various Government Entities should adopt, develop and implement. Processes include internal investigations which may involve interviews and/or the review of written evidence; penalties which may include deductions from an employee's salary, a reduction of grade, temporary suspension and ultimately dismissal. Notwithstanding these internal processes which may or may not lead to termination, the Law provides for termination on the basis of an employee reaching sixty years of age, the expiry of an employee's employment contract, resignation or termination other than for disciplinary reasons, if an employee becomes medically unfit, by Emiri resolution for reasons of public interest, if an employee is sentenced for a crime (provided that no waiver is applied by the Government Entity), cancellation or withdrawal of Qatari nationality, cancellation of an employee's job, and/or the death of an employee. Conclusion The Law provides considerable incentives to encourage high calibre employees into Ministry, government agency, public authority and institutional roles which will expose them to opportunities to assist and advise on the future shape, direction and development of Qatar.

Note: all Qatari Laws (save for those issued by, eg. the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC)) to regulate its own business, are issued in Arabic and there are no official translations, therefore for the purposes of drafting this article we have used our own translation and interpreted the same in the context of Qatari regulation and current market practice.