DOHA: An article published by Asian News International (ANI) last week has questioned the sincerity of international trade unions in their scathing attacks against the alleged labour rights violations in Gulf countries, especially Qatar.
The report titled “International trade unions need to be less combative, encourage more interaction with workers” published on December 26 was reproduced by several leading newspapers across Asia.
“Trade unions around the world are playing a leading role in the protracted global debate on various issues in the Gulf region. They continually dominate media headlines with allegations of wrongdoing taking place against workers in places like Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to name a few,” says the report.
For example, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has severely criticised Qatar for its failure to give more rights to the work force and appears relentless in its pursuit to help strip Qatar of its right to host the FIFA 2022 World Cup.
“They have ensured that the campaign is not only relentless, but also aggressive, and at times, questionable,” says the report. ANI said that bodies like the ITUC have employed dubious means during their alleged investigation of workers’ condition.
“A series of interactions with various stakeholders revealed a different perspective regarding their lifestyle, administration, agenda and financial angle,” said the report.
A personnel stationed at the Swiss-based office of ITUC located in the ILO building in Geneva was quoted as saying on conditions of anonymity, “in 2013/14, the ILO fired more than 600 employees in an effort to save costs. ITUC agreed not to lobby the ILO on this issue in return for maintaining its funding!”
“Junior employees are paid minimally and the trade union uses ineffective retired people to save costs, whereas the management leads a lavish lifestyle. Racquel Gozalez, the head of Geneva office, for instance, arrives at work in her BMW 5 series car valued at ¤70,000 and lives in a ¤500,000 apartment,” he added.
The ITUC’s accounts show that in 2012, it paid its 75 staff at its Brussels office almost ¤6m in salary, which equates to ¤80,000 per person, almost 2.5 times the average salary in Belgium. Furthermore, staff wages increased by ¤600,000 between 2011 and 2012, a rate of eight percent or approximately three times inflation. It is even harder to understand the justification for this pay rise when you consider that their affiliation fees — paid by real workers — only rose by 1.1 per cent to 11.9 million, said the report.
Interestingly, one of the ways ITUC is funded is through contribution by global affiliates. Spending money every year to have an organisation like ITUC fighting for your piece of the pie needs to be justified, it added. The Peninsula
“We pay huge amounts of money as annual fees to ITUC. Sometimes, we even pay half-yearly. We hope we get much more in turn, in terms of training programmes and skill development,” the report quoted Rajendra, who has been working as an administrative manager with Indian National Trade Union Congress for 18 years as saying. INTUC is the Indian affiliate of ITUC.
“I believe that instead of taking a hardline stand, promoting and publishing story after story against the Gulf, they should sit together and find a resolution. In absence of same, it looks like a Western-driven agenda to stall development.”
The Peninsula
