Qatar’s landmark reforms meant to safeguard human rights and welfare of expatriate workers has come in for huge praise yet again. The International Labor Organization (ILO) and FIFA, at a seminar held in Brussels by the European Parliament, hailed the labour reforms adopted by Qatar and for leading the region in advancing rights of the workers.
Qatar considers its expatriate workforce as a significant partner in the development process of the country and the State’s determination and coordination with concerned bodies to ensure the well-being of workers has borne fruit.
The representatives of ILO and FIFA stressed that Qatar has made substantial changes in recent years to ensure its commitment to respect workers rights in general, not just World Cup facilities’ workers. They added that Qatar adopts the highest standards of safety and security during the construction of 2022 World Cup stadiums, in addition to the adoption of new laws, notably the abolition of the sponsorship law, and the law of regulation of entry and exit of expatriates, which approved the cancellation of the requirement to issue the exit permit to allow travel of expatriates.
Chief of the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch of the ILO Governance and Tripartism Department, Beate Andrees, said that the progress made by Qatar in these areas is indeed a model for development.
FIFA’s Head of Sustainability and Diversity, Federico Addiechi, speaking about the most important achievements made by Qatar in preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, said FIFA worked closely during the last three years with the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) to follow up the completion of the infrastructure and stadiums of the World Cup.
He was all praise for the SC and said SC has been and continues to be a great partner, especially with regard to human rights. He pointed out that Qatar has launched a reform program to change the labour laws, in coordination with ILO, adding that FIFA witnessed significant changes in the area of labour laws.
In October, two key major steps were taken to fully protect the rights and welfare of expatriate workers. The first step was the implementation of amended law controlling the entry and exit of expatriates while the second development was the issuance of law pertaining to workers support and insurance.
Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued Law No. 17 of 2018 establishing the Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund a few days ago. It must be mentioned that in December 2016, Qatar abolished the Kafala system and replaced it with contract system within the framework of law reforms which included a minimum wage for all workers, setting up employee’s committees in workplaces, establishment of grievance committee, and committee for workers compensation.
No doubt, Qatar is setting new standards in protecting the rights of its workforce and has become a role model for others to follow in the region.
