Seventh Annual Workers’ Welfare Progress Report
رسالة الأمين العام
After twelve years of preparation and hard work, 2022 is no longer the far-off vision it once seemed. On November 21 of this year, the first ball will be kicked in the Middle East and Arab world’s first FIFA World Cup. There’s no sense of winding down. With final preparations at full pace and the continuous implementation of legacy cutting across our entire programme, our sense of purpose is as intense as ever.
Executive Summary
2021 was a critical year for the SC’s Workers’ Welfare Department (WWD) to formalise our expanding mandate, and ensure that the legacy of the WWS extended beyond construction. The sectors which WWD now covers include hospitality, tournament services, such as security and logistics, and other professional services associated with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
Hospitality was the first of the new sectors to begin implementing the WWS. By the end of 2021, all 30 hotel operators contracted by the SC had begun implementing the WWS in their operations, and the majority have been audited and inspected by the WWD and our external monitor, Impactt Ltd.
2021 also marked the close integration of the WWD with FIFA and Q22 – the official tournament organiser, leading to the establishment of a Workers’ Welfare and Labour Rights function within Q22. WWD also took an active part in the three major FIFA test events held throughout the year, enabling us to test our tournament-time operational approach, confirm that systems are resilient and identify improvements to the plans for the tournament.
Alongside this expanding remit, our commitment to improving workers’ welfare in SC construction projects continued in 2021. We saw further year-on-year improvements in contractor and OCP compliance in key target areas such as ethical recruitment, air ticket allowances, employment conditions and accommodation. Our close cooperation with the Ministry of Labour (MoL) has enabled us to rigorously implement enforcement measures, to ensure all workers are protected.
In the lead up to the tournament, the SC will leverage existing collaborations with key stakeholders, such as the MoL, to ensure that the WWS are widely adopted and implemented in time for the tournament, as a concrete symbol of the workers’ welfare legacy we are building.
Read more about our progress
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Key Achievements 2021 – In Figures
Way Forward
The completion of Lusail Stadium in early 2022 will bring the main construction activities to an end, and as a result the audit and inspection approach and criteria will be reassessed to increase the focus on main contractors, which employ the bulk of the workers, as the sub-contractors are demobilised.
The WWD will continue the capacity building and supply chain management programme, engaging with the 21 hotel operators and their OCPs as part of the quarterly revolving plan and working with remaining hotels in a phased manner to implement WWS into their operations. WWD makes its compliance information available to FIFA and its Member Associations as they undertake their own due diligence on hotel operators to mitigate workers’ welfare risks prior to the Tournament.
As we pivot our operations fully towards the FIFA World Cup 2022™, the WWD will continue to support Q22 and FIFA to embed the WWS into all procurement activities and to ensure the compliance of their key contractors and OCPs. This will further provide a significant opportunity to ensure that the benefits of the WWS are understood more widely, and we will work closely with stakeholders to explore how they might serve other sectors.
Seventh Annual Workers’ Welfare Progress Report full report available below.
