By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: A UK-based trade union expressed its interest in helping the Qatari government to monitor labour rights. Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite, who was on an official visit here told The Peninsula that the union is looking to support the local authorities in bringing to book the companies which violate the labour law.
An eight-member delegation from Unite, British and Ireland’s largest union, Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) together with UK’s Labour Party MPs Naz Shah and Ian Lavery were in Doha on a four-day visit.
“We can assist the government to enforce those (labour) laws and to make sure that they are monitored, and any abuses of workers are brought to their (officials’) attention. And we can raise the standards,” said McCluskey.
“We have met with the British ambassador, and we want him to try to open up a channel of communication with the Qatari government, so that we can talk to them about how the trade unions can help them achieving vision 2030. We can assist making that they achieve the vision, without exploiting workers,” he added.
The delegation has met with construction and hospitality sector employees working for different companies and visited several labour camps. The visits also included some UK based companies in Doha. However, the delegation did not meet Qatari officials.
“The visit was arranged by the BWI. We went through the Qatari officials, they know that we are here and we were able to have access to a number of sites, and talk to many construction workers and hospitality workers,” said McCluskey.
Speaking about their observations, he said: “…..The whole question about multinational companies is the sub contractors. They give work to smaller companies and they are abusing the workers.”
The BWI representatives of the delegation will work to deal with the manpower agencies in home countries, which exploit workers during recruitment.
“The Building Workers International will also try to tackle the errant agencies in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines, where these agencies take big amounts of money from individuals, in order to help them get jobs with all kinds of promises that are not met, when the workers get here,” McCluskey added.
The Peninsula
