Recently we have seen a gradual shift in the importance placed on mental health in Qatar.
Whilst the human development pillar in Qatar’s 2030 vision expresses Qatar’s ambition to develop a healthy population, both physically and mentally, general feedback from the Qatar’s employment market in the past has been that mental health is not taken seriously in the workplace; many argue that this is because it is treated as a sickness rather than a work place injury.
The perception of mental health is something Qatar is trying to tackle through its various healthcare initiatives.
Qatar launched its National Mental Health Strategy in 2013 with a vision to provide the best possible services for citizens and change attitudes towards mental illness.
It is recognised within this strategy that in order to optimise Qatar’s continued and sustained economic growth, the health and wellness of employees must be valued.
Qatar’s national healthcare strategy for 2018-2022 has identified 12 priority areas of focus, one of these covering people affected by mental health conditions.
In addition, one of the key focuses at the World Innovation Summit for Health which took place in Qatar at the end of last year was mental health, acknowledging that the healthcare community had long focused its efforts on physical health and has not prioritised mental health.
Perception is definitely changing in Qatar and it is therefore time for mental health to be taken more seriously in the workplace.
Is mental health a workplace injury under the Qatar laws?
Law No 16 of 2016 (Mental Health Law) has been established to address the rights of citizens and residents in relation to their mental health treatment.
Under the Mental Health Law:
“Mental Health” is defined as a state of mental and social well-being where the person can make achievements depending on his personal capabilities, and be able to handle the normal stresses of life and can work productively to make a contribution to the community”
l“Psychological Mental Disorder” is defined as “any disorder of psychological or mental functions that may hinder the person’s adaptation with his social environment, other than those who have behavioural disorders only”
l “Mental Capacity” is defined as “the patient’s ability to understand and realise the procedures and information provided to him and to take a sound decision accordingly”
These definitions are interesting when considering this in the context of occupational diseases or ‘work injuries’ which have occurred in the workplace.
The definition of “work injury” is “suffering by the worker from any of the occupational diseases listed in schedule No 1 to this law or any injury resulting from an accident happening to the worker during the performance of his work....”
The Qatar Labour Law was drafted with the more typical workplace injuries in mind for example physical injuries.
Therefore the injuries listed in Schedule 1 are very specific to physical injuries which could occur in a work environment and therefore does not reference any psycho logical injuries.
However the second part of the definition “or any injury resulting from an accident happening to the worker during the performance of his work” is quite wide.
Furthermore Article 100 of Law no.(14) of 2004 (Qatar Labour Law) states that:
“The employer shall take all precautionary measures for protecting the workers during the work from any injury or sickness that may result from the work performed in his establishment or from any accident, defect or breakdown in the machinery and equipment therein or from fire”. This definition is also quite wide and could therefore conceivably be extended to apply to mental health injuries.
Law No 15 of 2016 (Human Resources Law, which applies to civil servants and government related agencies) states that “death caused by overwork or stress and fatigue shall be considered a work-related injury, provided that it is proved by a medical report issued by a competent medical authority “and” in the case of death or total...or partial disability, the employee or his/her heirs shall be entitled to compensation for the work-related injury”. This suggests that a mental state such as “stress” can be classified as a “work-related injury” where compensation is payable if it partially disables, totally disables or causes the death of the individual.
If “stress”, which can be defined as “a state of mental or emotional strain”, can be considered to be a workplace injury, then “Mental Health” as defined under the Mental Health law may arguably also be considered in the same way.
How should mental health be dealt with in practice?
If mental health constitutes a ‘sickness’ rather than an occupational ‘injury’ then it may be arguable that mental health (as a sickness) is caught under Article 100 of the Qatar Labour Law which states that precautionary measures should be taken by employers to protect employees from “any injury or sickness that may result from the work performed in his establishment”. Whilst sickness is not defined as an “occupational injury”, it is clear that employers are responsible for ensuring that ‘sickness’ of the employee does not occur as a result of their employment.
Whether the employee will be compensated for the ‘sickness’ caused in the workplace is still unclear.
In practice with mental health, it is harder to establish when the “injury” occurred and where,
if any preventative measures could have been taken by employers and how much did the workplace contribute to the mental illness.
However, given the current initiatives relating to mental health and the approach taken by the Qatar government, it is advisable that employers start taking this seriously and implement preventative measures in line with their existing health and safety practices such as introducing employee support programmes.
Conclusion
The introduction of a law dedicated to mental health in 2016 was a clear indication that that this is an important focus area for Qatar.
Whilst the Mental Health Law focuses mainly on how patients are treated for mental health within a treatment facility and therefore does not apply in everyday practice, the definitions within the law provide some further clarity and are helpful to determine how the authorities are starting to view mental health.
There are various laws in Qatar which touch upon the issue of “mental well-being”, however there is no concrete answer as to how mental health should be dealt with in practice, particularly in the workplace.
This maybe because employers do not regularly deal with employee mental health issues and/or the fact that employees are not aware if they have any rights when it comes to mental health in the workplace.
Qatar’s National Health Strategy seeks to target this by 2022, and improve the research data on mental health in order to provide evidence-based mental health policies, plans and services.
The strategy also sets out to increase community awareness about mental health.
With Qatar’s healthcare initiative 2018-2022 and the current worldwide focus on mental health, we await the introduction of guidance in this area to establish how mental health should be dealt with in practice and particularly in the workplace to tackle this specific issue.
Note: Qatari Laws (save for those issued by, e.g. QFC to regulate its own business), are issued in Arabic and there are no official translations, therefore for the purposes of drafting this article Clyde & Co LLP has used its own translations and interpreted the same in the context of Qatari laws, regulation and current market practice.
l Should you have any questions in connection with this article or the legal issues it covers, please contact Emma Higham ([email protected]).
HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari and other dignitaries at the fourth Annual Symposium for Community Mental Health Services hosted by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) on April 21, 2018.
