The world’s leading trade union body said on Tuesday it would pressure international construction companies behind World Cup infrastructure in Qatar into respecting worker rights in what they described as a “slave state.”
Sharan Burrow, the secretary-general of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), said the umbrella group was watching as European, US and Brazilian companies compete for work in the Gulf emirate.
A contract for metro tunneling and construction has already been awarded to Italian building group Impregilo and local Italian unions will be contacting the company, she said.
“It’s a slave state. They are building one of the wealthiest countries in the world on the back of exploitation. It’s unconscionable,” she told reporters in New Delhi.
The majority of migrant workers expected to build the transport and stadium infrastructure for the competition in 2022 will be from India and elsewhere in South Asia. They will likely encounter appalling working conditions and no protection, Burrow said.
Campaigners say Qatar has anti-labor laws which prohibit migrant laborers from unionizing or striking, while employers routinely confiscate passports, fail to pay wages and exert huge control over their subordinates.
The International Labour Organisation estimated in April that there were 600,000 people who have been “tricked and trapped” into forced employment in the Middle East.
World soccer body FIFA says it is consulting with international labor groups on conditions in Qatar, while the desert state has promised reforms to its labor laws to offer greater protection to workers.
The ITUC released a global survey on Tuesday assessing conditions for workers worldwide which revealed the rising impact of joblessness and pessimism about the future.
Nearly half (49 percent) of respondents had been either personally affected by unemployment or had suffered reduced hours in the past two years, or had a family member affected. Only 13 percent said their income had risen faster than the cost of living over this period.
The survey polled 13,000 people in 13 countries including all the major Western powers and emerging nations Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa.
China was the only country where a majority (52 percent) of people felt that future generations would be better off, while only 18 percent of Japanese felt the same.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
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