DOHA: Now that the new labour law is out, the much-awaited new sponsorship and exit permit rules can be expected soon, say lawyers.

The two laws are closely interlinked so it was necessary to amend the labour legislation first — to make way for the new sponsorship law to be issued, according to lawyers.

The amended labour law makes it mandatory for the companies covered under it to electronically transfer the salary of their workers. A new format of job contract is expected to be issued by the authorities concerned to accommodate the above changes.

The format is expected to provide guidelines for clauses to be included in the job contracts on conditions for sponsorship change and entitlement to exit permit waiver or otherwise. For this, all companies might be required to change the job contracts of all their workers and follow the new format.

It is, thus, likely that the new labour law issued last week may be implemented together with the new sponsorship law, “which is anyway expected soon”, said Yusuf Al Zaman.

Al Zaman, a prominent lawyer, recalled in remarks to this newspaper that the new labour law (No 1 of 2015) is to be published in the official gazette and then implemented. “Although the official gazette is out every month, there is no information if the new labour law will be published in its next issue,” he said.