DOHA: Contractors and sub-contractors working on Qatar Foundation projects as well as its business partners will need to treat their migrant workers ethically based on standards being developed by the organisation to retain their ties with it.
The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development said in a statement yesterday it planned to soon become a role model for ethical treatment of low-income migrant workers.
The Foundation is busy instituting what it calls ‘Mandatory Standards of Migrant Workers’ Welfare’ that would help apply minimum requirements with respect to recruitment, living and working conditions as well as general treatment of migrant workers engaged in its construction and other projects.
These standards will be incorporated into agreements between Qatar Foundation and all its contractors, who are required to comply with the requirements and rules that have been set forth.
The organisation said it seeks to create an exemplary model for the ethical treatment of workers by guaranteeing that all contractors and sub-contractors, such as labour suppliers, labour agencies, and other service providers, adhere to strict regulations and comply with guidelines.
The new welfare initiative has been designed to curb unfair employment practices. A workers’ welfare department is being set up under the Foundation’s health, safety, security and environment directorate to act as a regulatory body. The said body will institute fair employment standards and ensure that all rules and protocols are being followed by respective parties, while pushing for continuous improvement.
The department will carefully screen business partners based on their compliance with the Mandatory Standards (of migrant workers’ welfare) and retain their services based on regular assessment of their performance.
In October last year, Qatar Foundation signed the Migrant Workers Welfare Charter.
The statement said that Qatar Foundation intends to set a benchmark for the rest of the country and encourage others to support the Foundation’s efforts to develop a knowledge-based economy that it centred on the well-being of the community at large. These standards are a result of a collaborative effort among Working Committee members whose backgrounds include law, sociology, health and safety, architecture and management.
