Salary unpaid in Qatar? How to file a labour complaint

What is the Wage Protection System, and when is your salary late?

The Wage Protection System (WPS) is how the Ministry of Labour tracks salary transfers into workers' bank accounts. The Labour Inspection Department runs it (Ministerial Decision No. 4 of 2015).

The Labour Law requires wages in Qatari riyals, paid at least monthly to workers on a monthly or annual wage and at least every two weeks to others, by transfer to the worker's account with a financial institution in Qatar. Only that transfer discharges the employer (Article 66).

Since 8 September 2026, a monthly wage falls due on the first day of each calendar month, and the employer must transfer it through the WPS within seven days of that date (Decision No. 4 of 2015, as amended by Decision No. 50 of 2026). If seven days pass without the transfer, the employer is in breach.

• - Your employer may not stop paying your wage, or hold it back, except to carry out a court judgment (Article 70).
• - Breaching Article 66 is punishable by up to one year in prison, a fine of QAR 2,000 to 10,000, or both (Article 145 bis).
• - The Ministry can stop issuing new work permits to the employer and suspend its dealings with the Ministry until it proves all late wages have been paid (Decision No. 4 of 2015, Article 4).
• - A worker harmed by an employer's breach of Article 66 may apply to change employer or to end the contract, and the employer must then pay for the worker's journey home (Article 146 bis, added by Law No. 9 of 2026).

What should you do first?

Start by documenting what has not been paid and asking for it in writing. Both will carry any complaint that follows.

1. 1

   1. Check your bank statements and list each month with no transfer or a short one, and how much is missing.

2. 2

   2. Ask your employer or HR for the wage in writing, by email or message, and keep any reply.

3. 3

   3. Gather your contract, your payslips and every message about pay.

4. 4

   4. Keep working unless a lawyer has advised otherwise. Unexcused absence of more than seven days in a row is a ground for dismissal without gratuity (Article 61).

5. 5

   5. Don't sign a clearance or a receipt for your dues until you have actually been paid.

6. 6

   6. Watch the deadline: claims lapse one year after the contract ends (Article 10).

The law lets a worker leave without notice and keep the full gratuity if the employer breaks its obligations (Article 51). Whether your situation fits is worth checking before you act on it.

How does a labour complaint work?

A wage dispute passes through two stages set by law: settlement at the Ministry of Labour, then the Labour Dispute Settlement Committee. The courts will not accept the claim before the committee has decided it (Article 115 bis 7).

1. 1

   1. You submit a complaint to the Ministry of Labour through its official channels, online or at its offices. For questions, the Ministry's hotline is 16008.

2. 2

   2. The competent department tries to settle the dispute within seven days and puts the outcome to both sides within the next seven. If both accept, the settlement goes into minutes they sign and the Ministry approves, and it can be enforced like a judgment.

3. 3

   3. If there is no settlement, one side refuses it, or one side doesn't respond, the Ministry refers the dispute to the committee within three working days, with a memo summarising the case and both sides' documents.

4. 4

   4. The committee's secretariat sets a hearing no later than seven working days after referral and notifies both sides at least three days before it (Article 115 bis).

5. 5

   5. The committee decides within three weeks of its first hearing (Article 115 bis 2).

Each committee is chaired by a judge of the Court of First Instance, sitting with a Ministry representative and an accounting expert, and there are five committees (Article 115 bis 1; Cabinet Decision No. 6 of 2018, as amended). You can attend in person or through a representative. Any document not in Arabic needs a certified Arabic translation, and the committee may strike out a claim if the claimant or their representative attends none of the hearings.

Submitting the dispute to the Ministry pauses the one-year limit until the settlement deadlines have run (Article 115 bis). Workers' claims for their rights are exempt from court fees (Article 10).

Can the decision be appealed, and how is it enforced?

A committee decision can be enforced as soon as it is issued, even if it is appealed. The law gives it the force of an enforceable instrument and issues it with provisional enforcement (Articles 115 bis 4 and 115 bis 5).

• - Appeal: either side may appeal to the competent chamber of the Court of Appeal within fifteen days of the decision if it was given in their presence, or from the day after notification if it was given in their absence.
• - Effect of an appeal: it does not stop enforcement unless that chamber orders it, and no one else can. The chamber must rule within thirty days of its first hearing (Article 115 bis 6).
• - Enforcement: if the employer still doesn't pay, the decision is enforced through the Execution Department at the Court of First Instance, using a copy that bears the enforcement formula. The execution judge decides any dispute about enforcement (Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure, Articles 362 and 363).

If the employer cannot pay at all, the Workers' Support and Insurance Fund may step in.

What if your employer cannot pay?

Law No. 17 of 2018 set up the Workers' Support and Insurance Fund. One of its tasks is to pay workers' dues decided by the Labour Dispute Settlement Committees and then recover them from the employer (Articles 5 and 16). It covers workers under the Labour Law and domestic workers, who have their own law (Law No. 15 of 2017).

Under the Fund Chairman's Decision No. 2 of 2022, the Fund pays amounts awarded by final committee decisions and final court judgments, up to these limits (Article 4):

• - You apply on the Fund's form with a certified copy of the committee decision or judgment bearing the enforcement formula (Article 5).
• - A committee decision qualifies only if it was not appealed within the fifteen days and the two sides made no amicable settlement to carry it out (Article 11).
• - The Fund closes the request if a written settlement between you and your employer exists, even one that was never carried out (Article 8). Think carefully before signing one.
• - The chairman may go above the limits in the public interest (Article 4), and payment can be brought forward if you are leaving Qatar for good (Article 16).

Which documents should you prepare?

When should you speak to a lawyer?

You can start a complaint on your own, but these situations are worth a legal review:

• - Your salary is more than a month late, or the delays keep happening.
• - You are thinking of leaving or changing employer because you are not being paid.
• - Your employer offers a settlement or clearance that leaves out part of what you are owed.
• - You disagree with your employer about your basic wage or your allowances.
• - The committee has decided and you want to appeal, or to answer your employer's appeal. The deadline is fifteen days.
• - Your employer has stopped trading, or the company is being wound up.
• - It is nearly a year since your contract ended.

Questions people ask