Doha: The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI), the global trade union for construction workers, for joint labour and accommodation inspections at 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums in Qatar from January next year.
The MoU was officially signed at SC's Doha headquarters by SC Secretary General, Hassan Al Thawadi, and BWI's General Secretary, Ambet Yuson. It will cover construction site and accommodation inspections, training and a review of the SC's current grievance mechanisms. The agreement will initially last for one year. The joint inspections will cover all stadium workers but will initially focus on projects that are being built by multinational companies that are headquartered in countries where BWI currently has representation.
To date the companies that fall under the agreement are from Austria, Belgium, Italy, India, and Cyprus – companies all employed on SC projects. The SC and BWI will form a Joint Working Group (JWG) that will manage the inspections and reporting obligations. The JWG will meet to review the work that has been done to date and produce a report that will be released to the public after every JWG meeting.
BWI will conduct health and safety training for the SC and its contractors working on World Cup projects that fall under the agreement.
Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI) will review and assess the SC's current Workers' Welfare Forums — a mechanism developed to allow workers to express and resolve their grievances and other issues that are mandated by the SC as part of the Workers' Welfare Standards (WW Standards).
Al Thawadi said, "This MoU comes at a crucial stage of our World Cup journey. As the number of workers engaged on our project reaches its peak of over 30,000 in the next 12 months, our inspection and auditing processes will need to be bolstered to ensure we continue to deliver sustainable and meaningful progress for our workers. While we have made a number of improvements in the last two years, from health and safety to accommodation standards, we recognize there is still work to be done.”
"This is an important step to build on the mechanisms currently in place which ensure workers’ safety on projects directly related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. As a global union, BWI will now work with the SC to review and assess the SC's health and safety training system.
We will get access to worksites and conduct labor inspections which are important preventive mechanisms against work-place accidents," Yuson said. The SC currently has eight construction sites under way across Qatar and just under 10,000 workers on-site at any given time.
The number of workers engaged on World Cup construction projects is expected to rise to 36,000 in the next 12 months as various projects approach completion or the main works stage, with Khalifa International Stadium expected for completion in Q1 2017 and the Al Wakrah and Qatar Foundation stadiums both rapidly heading towards their completion dates in 2018.
