Qatar hires worker welfare monitor for World Cup projects
Impactt Limited named as independent external monitor
Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SCDL), responsible for overseeing the FIFA World Cup 2022, has appointed a third party company to monitor worker welfare.
According to a FIFA statement, Impactt Limited has been appointed as an external monitor to boost the auditing and inspections process of the SC Workers’ Welfare (WW) Standards – a set of principles and regulations incorporated into all 2022 World Cup contracts.
The second edition of the WW Standards was published on March 1, and sets out the SC’s requirements for the recruitment, employment, living and working conditions of everyone engaged on an SC project.
The new requirements have been developed by the SC’s Workers’ Welfare Unit (WWU) in consultation with contractors, FIFA and NGOs.
Among the changes introduced in the second edition of the WW standards are a requirement for contractors to pay all workers in accordance with the Wage Protection System (WPS) introduced last November, and a mandate to appoint a Project Worker Welfare Officer once the number of workers on-site exceeds 500 workers.
“In line with our continued commitment to making tangible progress on workers’ welfare, this appointment of an independent third party External Monitor is an important step for us,” said SC Secretary General H.E. Hassan Al Thawadi.
“We will keep improving on every step of our journey as we make sure our approach to workers’ welfare progress is transparent and our updated standards are effectively and stringently enforced throughout the entire supply chain and life cycle of our projects.”
Rosey Hurst, director of Impactt, said the company’s approach is to put workers “at the centre of everything we do.”
“We work to understand how and why labour standards abuses occur, to support remediation for any individual whose rights have been infringed and to build systems and practices to support decent jobs for workers now and in the future.”
The announcement of an independent monitor being appointed comes after scathing criticism last week from Amnesty International, which said migrant workers employed on a World Cup stadium refurbishment project were still suffering from abuses, despite promises to boost welfare standards.
Workers were charged high recruitment fees by agents in their home countries, were housed in “squalid” accommodation, and barred from leaving the country by employers who confiscated their passports, the organisation said.
