Periodical review of pay is a must

Dear Sir,

V Kalyanaraman, in his letter “Recognise and reward employees” (Gulf Times, October 21), writes that “unless serious attention is paid by employers to review on a sustained basis their employees’ salary structure and perks, it would be next to impossible to retain talented and trained workforce”. This rule does not hold good for Qatar.
Because of the current restrictions on sponsorship transfer, employers in Qatar can easily retain their staff even without any pay rise as they know that their employees cannot change jobs without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from them. This is the sole reason why most of the companies don’t pay any attention to review  their employees’ salaries.
I work with a company where there are engineers who haven’t received any pay rise in the last five years. I myself have completed more than two years without any increment and I don’t think there will be any in the coming years also. My apartment rent has gone up by around 15% in this period, not to mention other spiralling expenses.
When proposals for the new labour law was announced, it was mentioned that an NOC would not be required if you worked for five years with a company. I believe even five years are too long without a pay rise, considering the present rate of inflation. In such case there should be a rule, making it mandatory to review and revise the salary package in line with the inflation at least once in two years, if not annually.
I hope both the government and the employers will give due importance and consideration to the workers’ welfare.

MN, (Full name and e-mail address supplied)

Garbage left uncollected

Dear Sir,

Abandoned garbage causes health and environmental risks. When trash is removed on time, it helps improve the quality of life in your neighbourhood.
In the Najma area, just behind the Al Meera hypermarket, where I live, garbage has not been collected for a week now and no one seems to care.
As road works are going on in Najma on Al Harith Bin Muslim Street, the municipality’s trash collection trucks may not be able to access the area but then some alternative arrangements should have been made to clear the garbage dump there. They can’t be just left there rotting away. Residents keep leaving more and more garbage on the dump as no one has briefed them that it would not be collected. A foul odour pervades the whole area now.
I myself have found an alternative site to leave garbage a few metres away where the road is open and the trash bin is accessible to collecting trucks but many other residents don’t seem to realise this. It will be great relief if the municipal authorities look into this.

Adel, (Full name and e-mail address supplied)