12.02.13

Miller Seeks to Prevent Abuse of Workers During Qatar World Cup Preparations

WASHINGTON—Today Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the senior House Democratic lawmaker in charge of worker safety and labor rights issues, sent two letters pressing for details on the efforts being taken to ensure that the migrant workers currently building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are being adequately protected from abuse.

A growing number of accounts of squalid living and working conditions for workers at Qatar’s World Cup-related construction projects have emerged in recent months, and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) estimates that at least 4,000 workers will die before the 2022 World Cup begins. Reports describe deaths at construction sites and a disregard for workplace safety; unsanitary and wretched living conditions; labor indentured through crippling debt; constrains on workers’ mobility within the country and confiscated passports; and exploitative practices like wage theft. 

“It is unconscionable that thousands of workers are being abused and killed in preparation for a sporting event,” says Miller. “The organizations that oversee the World Cup and the contractors that are profiting from it all have a responsibility to maintain safe and healthy working and living conditions for workers and ensure that the workers’ internationally recognized labor rights are protected.”

The worker abuses tied to the World Cup are emblematic of a more sweeping disregard for workers’ internationally recognized labor rights within Qatar. News outlets, labor organizations, and human rights advocates have all raised concerns that Qatar has insufficient labor protections for the 1.38 million workers, primarily from Nepal, who support the Qatari economy and World Cup preparations.

Rep. Miller, senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, delivered the first letter in advance of the latest executive meeting of the governing board of international soccer to Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international organization responsible for the World Cup, and Sunil Gulati, president of the United States Soccer Federation, America’s member organization in FIFA. Miller calls on Blatter and Gulati to identify the specific steps that FIFA is taking to investigate and monitor the ongoing labor situation in Qatar, including how it plans to enforce any assurances regarding workers’ rights made by Qatari authorities or contractors. 

The second letter was sent to Lee McIntire, Chairman and CEO of CH2M Hill, the engineering firm overseeing World Cup-related construction projects in Qatar. In light of the United Nation Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which holds that “the responsibility to respect human rights is a global standard for all business enterprises,” Miller asks McIntire to identify the concrete steps that CH2M has taken or will take to protect labor rights up and down the contracting chain. 

Read the text of the letters below:


Mr. Joseph S. Blatter  
President
Fédération Internationale de Football Association
P.O. Box 8044  
Zurich, Switzerland
Fax No. +41-(0)43-222-7878

Mr. Sunil Gulati
President  
The United States Soccer Federation
1801 S. Prairie Avenue
Chicago, IL 60616
Fax No. (312) 808-1301
 

Dear President Blatter and President Gulati:

I am deeply concerned about the labor conditions for migrant workers working on construction projects related to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.  I write to you both as the leaders of the international organization responsible for the World Cup and of my country’s member organization.  As the Senior Democratic Member of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has oversight and legislative jurisdiction over worker safety and labor rights issues, I respectfully request further information about the measures that the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the United States Soccer Federation are taking or will take to ensure that fair and just labor standards are met on World Cup-related construction projects for Qatar 2022. 

As you know, news outlets, labor organizations, and human rights organizations have provided numerous accounts of worker abuses in Qatar and indicate that Qatar has insufficient labor protections for the 1.38 million migrant workers, primarily from Nepal, who support Qatar’s economy. These reports include accounts of labor indentured through crippling debt, constraints on workers’ mobility within the country, and confiscated passports; exploitative practices like wage theft; disregard for workplace safety; and unsanitary and wretched living conditions.  

As President Blatter has noted, the labor rights situation in Qatar is “unacceptable.”[1]  I write to better understand what concrete measures are already expected of Qatar and of the companies contracted to prepare for the World Cup, as well as what mechanisms FIFA is using or will use to measure and enforce concrete improvements in workers’ rights there.  

Given your leadership positions with FIFA and my country’s member federation, I respectfully request information to clarify the following matters:

  1. What role does the status of labor rights specifically or human rights generally in a bidding country play, if any, in the decision to locate a World Cup competition?
  2. What specific steps is FIFA undertaking to investigate and monitor the ongoing labor situation in Qatar?
  3. What assurances, if any, has FIFA sought or received from either Qatar or the contractors working in the host country to abide by internationally recognized labor rights and establish and maintain safe and healthy working conditions?  
  4. What steps may FIFA or the U.S. Soccer Federation, as a member thereof, take to ensure that labor rights are protected and enforced in Qatar going forward with World Cup preparations?  How does FIFA or the U.S. Soccer Federation enforce any assurances regarding workers’ rights made by Qatari authorities or contractors?
  5. Has FIFA established any benchmarks for measuring the improvement of the labor rights situation in Qatar?
  6. Will FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation join with the International Trade Union Confederation in calling on Qatari authorities to:
  • End the “kafala system”[2] so migrant workers can change employers and freely leave the country in addition to eradicating economically coercive recruiting practices and  instituting an effective and accessible grievance procedure for labor complaints;
  • Introduce a fair and non-discriminatory minimum wage;
  • Pass national laws allowing freedom of association for migrant workers, giving them the right to form and join trade unions, and collectively bargain for fair wages and safe work environments?

In addition to the above requested information, I respectfully request that you both ensure that the subject of indentured labor and workers’ rights in Qatar is on the agenda of FIFA’s executive committee meeting scheduled for December 4, 2013, in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, including discussion of how FIFA and its member federations will work to ensure safe working conditions and respect for workers’ rights in Qatar for any and all World Cup preparation projects.  

Thank you in advance for your prompt response to this request.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact my staff, Leticia Mederos, at (202) 225-3725.

Sincerely,

GEORGE MILLER
Senior Democratic Member

***

December 2, 2013


Lee McIntire
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer 
CH2M Hill
9191 South Jamaica Street
Englewood, CO 80112

Dear Mr. McIntire: 

I am deeply concerned about the labor conditions for migrant workers working on construction projects related to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.  I understand your company is acting as Program Manager for 2022 World Cup projects.  As the Senior Democratic Member of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has oversight and legislative jurisdiction over worker safety and labor rights issues, I respectfully request detailed information about the measures that CH2M Hill is taking to ensure that labor rights are protected at every level of the contracting chain.  

As you know, news outlets, labor organizations, and human rights organizations have provided numerous accounts of worker abuses in Qatar and indicate that Qatar has insufficient labor protections for the 1.38 million migrant workers, primarily from Nepal, who support Qatar’s economy and World Cup preparations. These reports include accounts of labor indentured through crippling debt, constraints on workers’ mobility within the country, and confiscated passports; exploitative practices like wage theft; disregard for workplace safety; and unsanitary and wretched living conditions.  While the Assurance Director at CH2M Hill has estimated that under current work conditions 14 people will lose their lives while building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup and 300 workers will die on related projects,[3]  the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) estimates that at least 4,000 workers will die before the 2022 World Cup begins.  FIFA President Sepp Blatter has called the labor situation in Qatar “unacceptable.”

A chapter in Amnesty International’s recent report on Qatar revealed troubling issues in contracting chains, with contractors attempting to avoid responsibility for the labor violations of their subcontractors, and subcontractors blaming contractors for cash flow problems that lead to violations like wage theft.  How companies like yours proceed with work in Qatar will ultimately determine whether human rights and workers’ lives are protected.

The United Nations has promulgated principles for safeguarding human rights in business activity.  The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights recognize that “the responsibility to respect human rights is a global standard of expected conduct for all business enterprises wherever they operate. It exists independently of States’ abilities and/or willingness to fulfill their own human rights obligations, and does not diminish those obligations. And it exists over and above compliance with national laws and regulations protecting human rights.”[4]  Especially where a history or pattern of human rights violations exists, as it does in Qatar, a business has an even greater, proactive responsibility for due diligence in its contracting chain to avoid complicity with and ultimately prevent such violations.  

Given your position as the program manager on 2022 Qatar World Cup projects, I respectfully request the following information:

  1. What concrete steps has C2HM Hill taken or will it take to protect labor rights up and down the contracting chain in projects it is or will be managing?  How will C2HM Hill monitor working conditions on projects?  How will it identify abuses?  How will it mitigate and prevent abuses?
  2. Has C2HM Hill or the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee codified any labor standards in their contracts requiring contracting parties, such as subcontractors, to:
  • Abide by the terms and conditions of their contracts with workers including matters of hours, wages, timely payment of wages, accommodations, and health and safety; 
  • allow workers freedom of movement by not confiscating their passports; 
  • allow workers to move to other employers on request; 
  • put in place financial safeguards to ensure workers are paid on time;
  • guarantee any other internationally recognized workers’ rights?

3) I appreciate a recent conversation C2HM Hill representatives had with my staff.  In that conversation, company representatives indicated that a workers’ charter was under development in Qatar.  Please provide a copy of any such charter.  How is such charter enforced?  

Thank you in advance for your prompt response to this request.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact my staff, Leticia Mederos, at (202) 225-3725. 

Sincerely,

GEORGE MILLER
Senior Democratic Member