“Labour inspectors rarely visit makeshift labour lodgings at construction sites, except to check compliance with summer work timings in the months of June, July and August,” an insider said.
Housing workers in temporary labour camps isn’t easy and becomes necessary only in the case of big projects where the number of workers involved goes up to 2,000 or 3,000 as a cost-saving measure, insist industry sources.
Also, housing workers on a project site becomes imperative when the project is located far from a company’s permanent labour lodgings. The time taken to transport workers to the site from a permanent camp and back, and the costs involved, are, thus, saved.
And only if the client permits setting up temporary labour camps can a contracting or construction company have such a facility on the site. Projects owned by the government or semi-government organisations do not allow contracting and construction companies to set up temporary labour camps on sites, said an industry source.
“So, you have to either house your workers in permanent camps or take a huge plot of land close to a site and build a temporary labour camp,” said an industry source. “These are the challenges we face.”
Some state-backed big-time companies have huge permanent labour camps in places like Ras Laffan, Mesaieed and Dukhan and they rent them out to construction companies.
These camps fulfil all criteria specified by the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC). But their rates are “exorbitant” and reliance on them can “frustrate” the cost of a project for a construction or contracting company, claim industry insiders.
“Portacabins to house workers temporarily on construction sites work out a lot cheaper.”
So, if the NHRC guidelines are implemented, companies could be forced to take the above labour camps on rent notwithstanding their high rates per worker, said industry insiders.
However, not many in the industry think the guidelines would be implemented effectively. “We are hearing about the guidelines of the NHRC only in local newspapers. No one from the NHRC or the labour ministry has so far approached us,” said another insider.
The industry is also calling into question the timing of releasing the guidelines. “The NHRC has been in existence for a long time, so why are they issuing the guidebook now?” asked an industry source.
Nasser Al Meer, head of the contracting committee at Qatar Chamber, representative body of the private sector, and a Chamber board member, said: “True. The guidelines are already there in the labour law, but they are being issued in the form of a handbook by the NHRC to remind the construction industry of their importance and the need to comply with them”.
