Doha HR guide: Qatar Labour Law, WPS and the QFC for small teams

Which rulebook applies to you

The Labour Law is the default for private employers on the mainland. Article 3 lists who sits outside it: government staff and public bodies, petroleum companies and companies founded by Qatar Petroleum, the armed forces, casual workers, household staff, an employer's dependent family members and agricultural workers. Household staff have their own Law No. 15 of 2017, which the minimum wage law refers to by number.

Firms licensed by the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) are a separate world. The QFC's own site says its Employment Standards Office was set up under Article 6 of Law No. 7 of 2005 and enforces the QFC Employment Regulations across the Centre. The QFC rulebook lists those regulations in thirteen parts. We did not open the full text, so this guide gives no QFC leave, notice or gratuity figures. If your entity is QFC licensed, read that rulebook and call the Employment Standards Office rather than using the table above.

The free zones are the third case. The Qatar Free Zones Authority homepage names Ras Bufontas and Marsa Maritime but says nothing about employment rules, and we found no primary source that settles which labour regime a free zone company follows. Ask the authority in writing before you hire.

Qatari nationals add a fourth thread. Their social insurance sits with the General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority, whose grsia.gov.qa address now redirects to daman.gov.qa. The contribution rules were not readable there, so we state no rates. Ask your accountant.

The English text is not the current law

Open Labour Law No. 14 of 2004 on Al Meezan in English and Article 39 says an employer ending probation must tell the worker within three days after the fact. Article 49 shows notice tiers of one week, two weeks and a month. Neither is current. Decree-Law No. 18 of 2020, published in the Official Gazette on 8 September 2020, replaced both. The same decree replaced Article 43 so that a non-compete clause is capped at one year, added Article 52 bis on dismissals for economic reasons and added a new ground in Article 51 for a worker who wins a labour committee decision.

A further layer arrived in 2026. Two law firms report that Law No. 9 of 2026, published on 25 June 2026, lifted the non-compete cap to two years, made joint committees mandatory from 100 workers instead of optional from 30, excluded part time and freelance workers from the Labour Law unless the Council of Ministers extends it, and added a conciliation step before the labour dispute committee. We could not open the Al Meezan page for that law, so treat those points as reported, not read. If your contracts carry a non-compete clause, ask a Qatari lawyer which cap applies from which date.

Hiring: contract, probation and the paper trail

The employment contract must name the employer, the worker, the work, the start date, the term if fixed, and the pay with its date and method. A fixed term cannot exceed five years (Article 40). If both sides carry on after it ends with no new agreement, the contract becomes open ended on the same terms. Note that the renewal counts as part of the earlier service.

Probation is capped at six months, can be used once per employer, and must be written into the contract. After the 2020 change, an employer who finds the worker unfit must give at least one month's written notice, which makes probation less of a free exit than the old three day rule. A worker who wants to move to another employer during probation gives a month's notice, and the new employer compensates the old one for the air ticket and recruitment fee, up to two months of basic wage. A worker who is leaving Qatar gives the agreed notice, up to two months.

Three duties are easy to miss. Article 46 requires an employer with ten or more workers to adopt a work handbook and have the labour department approve it, and Article 58 does the same for disciplinary rules. Article 47 requires a personal file for every worker, kept for at least a year after the contract ends. Article 48 lists five registers: workers, pay, penalties, work injuries and end of service. If you hire by e-signed contract and keep the file in one place, those paper duties become a search, not a hunt.

Hours, Ramadan and the rest day

Article 73 sets 48 hours a week at eight a day, and 36 hours at six a day in Ramadan. Working hours must include a break of at least one hour and at most three, and nobody may work more than five hours in a row. Travel to and from work does not count.

Overtime is allowed up to ten actual hours a day. It is paid at the basic wage plus at least 25%, and work between 9 pm and 6 am pays at least 50% more, except for shift workers (Article 74). Article 75 makes Friday the usual rest day. Working on it earns a replacement day, and the article names a premium of at least 150%. Read the article text before you set up a payroll rule on that figure. Nobody except shift workers may be employed two Fridays in a row. Article 77 asks you to post the rest day, hours and break table at the entrance and send the labour department a copy.

Senior staff with an employer's authority over other workers are outside Articles 73 to 75 (Article 76). HR FLARE lets each person plan their own week, and weekly timesheets show hours against the 48 and 36 hour limits. It does not compute overtime pay. Read the total off the timesheet and apply the premium in payroll.

Holidays and leave

Article 78 gives paid holidays each year: three working days for Eid al-Fitr, three for Eid al-Adha, one for Independence Day and three days the employer picks. It names no other days. The Al Meezan print may predate later decisions, so confirm each year's national days against the official announcement before you publish your calendar.

Annual leave starts after one continuous year: at least three weeks for under five years of service and four weeks from five years, with part years in proportion (Article 79). The employer sets the dates, can split the leave into at most two periods with the worker's consent, and can carry half of it over only on the worker's written request (Article 80). A worker cannot waive leave. If the contract ends first, the unused days are paid in cash (Article 81). Article 68 requires the employer to pay the leave allowance before the leave starts, so the payroll date moves forward for that month.

Sick leave under Article 82 begins after three months of service and needs a report from a physician the employer approves. The first two weeks pay in full, the next four weeks at half, and later weeks are unpaid. Termination is possible at twelve weeks if a licensed physician says the worker cannot return. Article 85 forbids giving notice of termination during any leave period, or letting a notice period end inside one. A Muslim worker may take up to twenty unpaid days once for Hajj (Article 83). In HR FLARE each leave request carries a mandatory reason, which suits the medical report requirement.

Paying salaries: WPS and the minimum wage

Law No. 1 of 2015 replaced Article 66. Pay is in Qatari riyals. Monthly staff are paid at least once a month and everyone else at least every two weeks. The employer must transfer the wage to the worker's account at a financial institution in Qatar, and is not discharged from the debt unless it does so. Decree-Law No. 18 of 2020 later set the penalty for breaking Article 66 at up to a year in prison and a fine of QAR 2,000 to 10,000.

The ILO describes the Wage Protection System (WPS) as the bank transfer regime in force since 2015 for every employer under the Labour Law, traceable by the Ministry. Employers submit a Salary Information File each month. As of the ILO's 2020 note, that file was being amended to carry separate fields for the food allowance, the housing allowance and overtime, so the ministry's WPS unit could spot pay below the minimum. We could not open the ministry's own WPS page, so check the current file layout with your bank.

The minimum wage rests on Law No. 17 of 2020, which sets no figure. Article 2 leaves the amount to a ministerial decision reviewed at least once a year. Article 4 requires an employer to top up anyone below it. The government's statement at launch gave QAR 1,000 basic, plus QAR 500 for housing and QAR 300 for food unless the employer provides them. We found no revision, but we did not read the ministerial decision itself, so confirm the figures with the ministry.

Deductions are capped. An employer's loan can be recovered at no more than 10% of pay, all deductions together at no more than 50% (Article 70), damage compensation at no more than seven days' pay a month (Article 71) and disciplinary deductions at no more than five days' pay a month (Article 60). Interest on staff loans is forbidden. HR FLARE keeps payroll records and payslips in QAR for each month, with no tax calculation. It does not create a Qatar salary file, and the Qatar setting does not switch on a WPS export.

Ending employment: notice, gratuity and the dues

After probation, either side may end the contract without giving reasons, with written notice of one month in the first two years and two months after (Article 49). A foreign worker who leaves Qatar without following the article cannot be granted a work permit for a year. Before dismissing staff for economic or structural reasons, Article 52 bis requires the employer to tell the ministry at least 15 days ahead with the reasons, the number of workers and their categories.

The gratuity is in Article 54. A worker with at least one full year of service gets not less than three weeks of pay for each year, part years in proportion, calculated on the last basic wage (Article 72 confirms basic wage as the base). Take someone leaving after four and a half years: 4.5 times three weeks is 13.5 weeks of basic wage as the legal floor. The employer may deduct what the worker owes it. If the employer runs a pension scheme that pays more, it need not pay both (Article 56).

The contract can be ended without notice or gratuity only for the grounds in Article 61, such as false identity, repeated written breaches of safety or core duties, working drunk, assault, or more than seven consecutive days of absence without a legitimate cause. Article 62 sets the procedure: written investigation, and the accusation within fifteen days of the employer learning of the act. On exit, Article 53 gives a free service certificate and the return of documents. Article 67 requires all dues by the end of the working day after the contract ends. Article 57 requires a repatriation ticket for a non-Qatari worker within two weeks.

If a dispute follows, Decree-Law No. 18 of 2020 created labour dispute committees at the ministry, headed by a judge. Law No. 17 of 2018 set up the Workers' Support and Insurance Fund, which can pay a worker the amount a committee awards and then recover it from the employer. So an unpaid award does not vanish: the fund can chase the employer for it.

The summer midday ban

From 1 June to 15 September, outdoor work is banned between 10:00 and 15:30 under Ministerial Decision No. 17 of 2021. The ILO adds that all work must stop when the wet bulb globe temperature passes 32.1 degrees at a site, whatever the hour. The Qatar Tribune reported it in force again from 1 June 2026, so this year's window closed on 15 September. If you run couriers, installers or site crews, build the shifts in March, not in June.

A yearly checklist for a Doha team

• January: list each person's service years, because leave moves from three to four weeks at five years.
• Before Ramadan: move to six hour days and say how the 36 hours are spread.
• Each month: pay on time into a Qatari account, and check every wage against the minimum.
• Before each Eid: confirm the holiday dates from the official notice and pay leave allowances before leave starts.
• Before 1 June: reschedule outdoor work out of the 10:00 to 15:30 window.
• On every exit: total the gratuity, the leave cash out and the ticket, and pay by the next working day.

What HR FLARE does not do

• No Qatar WPS file: your bank handles the salary file and the transfer; HR FLARE keeps the payroll record.
• No tax or insurance calculation: pension contributions for Qatari employees are worked out outside HR FLARE.
• Data location: data is hosted in Europe; in-country hosting is not available.