CIOB to press for reform on Qatar workforce rights via Members’ Forum

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The CIOB has confirmed that its 2014 Members’ Forum and annual conference is to be held in the Gulf state of Qatar, putting the CIOB at the heart of efforts to drive forward progressive reform on workers’ welfare in the World Cup 2022 host country.

The Members’ Forum is attended by the CIOB’s Board of Trustees, its executive, and member representatives from branches, centres and regions around the world, who meet to discuss issues and formulate CIOB strategy.

The Forum is part of a six-day event from June 13 to 19 which will also include the CIOB’s annual general meeting, site visits and a one-day conference on 18 June.

The venue was unanimously chosen by delegates at last year’s Members’ Forum in Leeds. But since then, following a report in The Guardian in September 2013, the rapidly-developing state has become subject to allegations of ill-treatment and human rights abuses of its immigrant labour force.

While the problems flowing from the kafala system of sponsored labour affect all sectors of the Qatari economy, the catalogue of early deaths and appalling living conditions on some of Qatar’s construction projects have brought the issue closer to home.

In an interview with Global Construction Review and Construction Manager, CIOB chief executive Chris Blythe insisted that the CIOB will not be shying away from these issues – a “large part” of the conference will focus on workers’ issues, while the Members’ Forum will also promote reform.

Blythe says: “The CIOB can be part of helping to change things by working with others putting pressure on the Qatari authorities to change the system and to move on from the system they have.”

He explained that deputy chief executive Bridget Bartlett and CIOB president Peter Jacobs met with diplomats at the Qatari embassy in February. “We told the chargé d’affaires what our plans were for this conference, who would be attending, and that we were going to be critical of what goes on. We wanted them to understand that we couldn’t go there and just ignore it. And they welcomed that.”

Blythe acknowledges the risk that the Members’ Forum and annual conference could just become another “talking shop”, but says: “If you don’t engage in conversation nothing will happen. I think the Qatari government is eager to hear from anybody who can contribute positively to the debate as opposed to just criticising. If you ignore them and say ‘I’m not even getting involved’, don’t expect things to change. That’s a strategy for leaving things as they are. If you’re concerned about the fate of migrant workers, walking away from Qatar is not going to solve the problem.”

Blythe is hoping that the CIOB Members’ Forum will represent one step on a path to far-reaching reform. “The Members’ Forum will make recommendations on possible ways forward for Qatar. I and others have already suggested that a government-run body takes in all the migrant workers and hires them out to the employers, in effect cutting out the agents. That’s been tried in Bahrain to a limited degree and there’s no reason it couldn’t work in Qatar.

“It would amount to nationalising the migrant worker business. That way you can set out and police things like conditions more easily. But it’s having the will to do it. It would also mean contractors and all the other employers adjusting their business model. So it needs thinking through.”

He concludes: “Often the excuse is, well, this is not our problem, it’s the subcontractors’. That really is unacceptable. Everyone has to share in the issue. This is why I think that if Qatar doesn’t do something it will be a matter of international shame. The high profile that Qatar has sought for itself has a price, and the price is to do things right. If they don’t they end up being diminished.”

The CIOB is also a long-standing supporter of a charter on the welfare of migrant workers published by the Qatar Foundation in March last year – see our previous story here. The Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organisation founded in 1995, aims to improve education, science, community life and the arts.

It also runs schools, and works with a number of organisations to build new facilities in Qatar, including campuses of eight international universities. The Foundation now insists that any work commissioned in their name must abide by the standards set out in the charter.

While the charter does not have legislative backing, Blythe points out that it still has considerable traction. “Qatari Rail, which is building the rail infrastructure, is adopting the principles set out in that document. The principles are quite rigorous, covering everything from working conditions to housing. If you don’t abide by it, you won’t get work with the Qatar Foundation or Qatari Rail.”

In January Blythe participated in a round table with the Qatar Foundation, Engineers Against Poverty, and Amnesty International on migrant workers, hosted by the CIOB’s Middle East president Stephen Lines. Another participant was Chris Newman MCIOB, welfare manager for the Qatar Foundation. “His job is to bring in policy around migrant workers. We’ve got members at the heart of trying to deal with this,” Blythe notes.

For more on this story, see the April edition of Construction Manager