Doha - The Nepalese embassy is pursuing with different agencies cases of compensation claims involving 68 lowly-paid Nepalese workers who died in accidents in Qatar between May 2003 and early September this year.
A majority of these deaths (39) occurred in road accidents and most cases involving compensation are with the Department of Traffic and Patrol Police.
Statistics made available by the embassy suggest that 16 workers died while on duty and therefore, their families are entitled to workman's compensation.
One death was caused on January 12 this year due to severe burn injuries. The victim was Bin Bahadur Rana. In another incident on August 19 this year, a worker (Rajan Adhikari) fell from a height and died on the spot.
According to Rajender Panday, charge d'affaires at the Nepalese embassy, the highest compensation paid to the dependents of a Nepalese worker so far has been QR500,000.
The award was ordered by the court since the worker was left totally incapacitated in a workplace incident. And barely days after the sum was handed to his family, he succumbed to his injuries.
Had he died before the court had awarded the compensation, the maximum amount his dependents would have received would have been QR150,000, which is the standard compensation in all death cases, whether caused by road or workplace accidents.
Panday said that only a small percentage of the 68 compensation cases were in the courts, while the others were being decided by the traffic and labour departments as well as the Public Prosecution (Niaba).
A compensation claim normally takes between six months to a year for settlement and only if there is a dispute is it referred to the court.
Panday said that a welcome development was that the department of labour was showing increasing concern for workers and gradually shrugging off its bias in favour of the employers.
"They are listening to the other side as well and getting stricter with employers, which was not the case earlier," he stated. As a result of this change in attitude of the labour authorities, not many aggrieved Nepalese workers are coming to the embassy for help now, he added.
Panday is hopeful that the raids the labour inspectors have begun to conduct on labour camps will lead to a drastic improvement in the living conditions of low-income workers.
© The Peninsula 2006
