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Ticket back home

4
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 06 January 2011 - 23:43

Hi can anyone help us? My husband has just resigned from his job and we aim to leave in Feb. The company are telling us that we have to pay for our own ticket to get back home. Is this legal? I was under the impression that if they paid for us to get here they should get us out. They are getting the tickets for us but taking the money out of his last pay check can they do this? Also we are due our yearly ticket anyway as we didn't go home this year. Just wondered if anyone knew the law here and if so what we can do. Thanks

4
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EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 07 January 2011 - 14:30
Thanks everyone. He actually had an on going contract once the job finishes here they move him to another country etc. He finished his one year probationary period. I will check with the labour office.
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 07 January 2011 - 11:08
Even if you do fulfill the contract, the other case where you might lose your ticket home is if you are transferring to another job within Qatar and require an NOC. In my work (and I suspect many others) a part of the clearance process is telling the employer if you will have your RP canceled or transferred to another employer. If it is being canceled and there are no other pending issues, the flight tickets home will be provided. But if you are doing an internal transfer w/i Qatar, they won't. A rep of our HR department explained to me that if you request a cancellation and then leave and re-enter only to THEN request the NOC, it could very well be denied and they you have lost the chance at working in Qatar for the short-to-medium term. I'm assuming that if and when the rumored end to the NOC system ever comes, this will be a non-issue. But until then...
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EW GURU
Latest post on 07 January 2011 - 11:03
Actually the Labour Law says that at "termination of the service" the employer shall pay for the worker to go back to where recruitment took place - it doesn't say anything about termination of contract or prior to end of contract. Obviously you've been here more than 12 months since you are due for your annual tickets anyway so I would have a look at your contract and see what it spells out - many contracts specify what conditions will still apply if the contract is broken and in many cases conditions still apply no matter what and are not tied to the completion of the contract. My husbands work would have paid for us to go at any stage during his initial contract and at my work even if a person turns up for 3 days and wants to leave we pay for them to go back. You might also want to go into the Labour Department and talk to them - they are pretty good about following things up fast for people.
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EW OLDHAND
Latest post on 07 January 2011 - 10:34
Am afraid that is true. If you leave before the end of contract then the company is not liable and owes you nothing. A less than sympathetic company could even stop you from leaving the country.
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EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 07 January 2011 - 01:01
You need to pull out the contract he signed and read over it. My husband's contract with his employer spells out all such details. If my husband were to resign before the end of his contract, then he would be responsible for paying his own way home and depending on at which point in the contract he resigned would also be responsible for repaying the company for some of the expense they had with relocating us to Qatar. The company is only responsible for the costs once the employee has fulfilled the entire term of the contract. Resigning is in essence breaking the contract one has with their employer, and could be considered to relieve the employer of all responsibilities that they would have otherwise had. ~ Deb