Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), a global trade union for construction workers, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy to carry out labour and accommodation checks surrounding construction work at stadia for football’s 2022 Fifa World Cup.
The inspections will take place from January of next year and will run for an initial period of 12 months. Discussions started between both parties in March 2014.
There has been widespread concerns surrounding working conditions at World Cup venues in Qatar over recent years.
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 – including Austria, Belgium, Italy, India, and Cyprus.
As part of the MoU, the Qatari committee and BWI will form a joint working group to manage the inspections and reporting obligations. The working group 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 meeting.
BWI will also conduct health and safety training for the committee and its contractors working on World Cup projects that fall under the agreement.
“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,” BWI general secretary Ambet Yuson said.
“As a global union, BWI will now work with the Supreme Committee to review and assess the health and safety training system. We will get access to work sites and conduct labour inspections which are important preventive mechanisms against work-place accidents.”
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