Qatar signed 3 companies to build city for migrant workers

Qatar government has signed up three private companies - Shaqab Abela Catering Services, Gulf Systems for Contracting and Services and Redco International Trading and Contracting - for the construction of the Phase One of a massive labour accommodation project that will eventually house 179,000 workers, said a report.
Under this project, seven housing complexes will be built on an area of over 6.6 million sq m across the country in three phases at an investment of QR1.6 billion ($439 million). The project is expected to completed by the end of 2017, reported The Peninsula.
The Qatari move come as part of its efforts to provide a permanent accommodation for workers in a proper environment with all services and health, social, religious and entertainment facilities, said the report citing the Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani.
These projects will come up on Umm Salal Mohammed, Birkat Al Awamer, Umm Ghuwailina, Al Wakrah and Al Shamal areas of Qatar, it stated.
Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani, Undersecretary for Public Services, signed the contracts with Jassim bin Abdullah Al Misnad of Shaqab Abela Catering Services, Nabil Bu Issa of Gulf Systems for Contracting and Services and Saif ur Rehman Khan of Redco International Trading and Contracting.
The Umm Salal project will be executed by these private companies on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. Under this system, they will get to finance, construct and operate the facility for 15 years.
The first housing complex will be built in Umm Salal Mohammad as the first phase of the project with the capacity of 24,000 workers, followed by more complexes at Barkat Al Awamer in the second phase and then at Umm Ghuwailina, Al Wakrah and Al Shamal.
The complexes will have full facilities for workers such as parks, sport areas, mosques, ambulance assembly points, dining halls and laundry, the report added.

Source:
http://www.albawaba.com/business/qatar-signs-key-contracts-migrant-worker-city-777918

Qatar rejects Amnesty criticism on anniversary of winning World Cup bid

Qatar is “committed to protecting the workers” who are building its many infrastructure projects and is making progress in terms of labor rights, the government said in response to a new Amnesty International report that accused the state of “rampant” abuse of low-income employees.
Today marks the fifth anniversary since Qatar was named as host city for the 2022 World Cup.
On the eve of that milestone, Amnesty issued an annual scorecard asserting that authorities in Qatar “have done almost nothing effective to end chronic labor exploitation” here. It also accused FIFA of being complicit in failing to make material improvements to workers’ rights.
In response, Qatar’s Government Communications Office issued a statement last night arguing that the report “does not accurately reflect the progress we have made in reforming our labor system.”
It also claimed that Amnesty’s report did not compare Qatar’s developments to other countries that have a similar majority-expat population:

“The Government feels that Amnesty’s reporting lacks context, as it does not benchmark labor conditions in Qatar against labor conditions in other countries facing similar challenges.
Qatar fully intends to meet the highest standards with regard to labor but for reasons that are unclear, Amnesty International has provided no comparative data on labor conditions in other countries employing large numbers of guest workers to meet the demands of rapid growth and development,” the statement said.

Worker reforms

Asserting its “appreciation” of its migrant workforce, the government office maintained it had made a number of “significant (human rights) reforms” and that the state is “committed to respecting both their labor rights and their human rights.”
Among the examples of reforms cited by the government are the introduction of the Wage Protection System, which requires companies to pay employees’ wages directly into bank accounts.
The government also said there are “new laws” banning employers from withholding their employees’ passports and from working during midday hours in summer months.
However, these rules have been in place for a number of years, though workers do regularly complain about the passport issue and have said the authorities do not do enough to enforce the law.

Kafala

Amnesty also criticized Qatar for taking more than a year to introduce minor reforms to its controversial kafala sponsorship system that aren’t expected to take effect until next year.
“The reforms proposed by the government fail to tackle the central issues that leave so many workers at the mercy of employers, yet even these changes have been delayed,” Amnesty researcher Mustafa Qadri said.
However, the Qatar government office maintained that, despite criticism that the new law doesn’t go far enough in tackling some of the issues around workers’ rights, “these new regulations mark the beginning of the end of the so-called ‘kafala’ laws in Qatar.”
The statement continued:

“Far from ‘tinkering on the edges’ of reform, Qatar has made, and will continue to make changes in our laws that will help ensure that the rights of both workers and their employers are respected.”

In a separate public announcement yesterday, the head of the local organizing body for Qatar’s World Cup maintained that Qatar was making good progress in its preparations to host the global event in seven years’ time.
Hassan Al Thawadi, secretary-general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, reportedly said: “Our vision, our legacy continues to develop. The World Cup will go down in history as being an outstanding one.”
Work is underway on six of what will be at least eight stadiums required for the event, with the remodeled Khalifa international stadium in Aspire Zone set to be the first facility to be completed next year.
The main contractor for Al Wakrah stadium, which was designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, is set to be announced next week, Al Thawadi added.

FIFA response

The official also commented on the ongoing turmoil faced by football’s international governing body FIFA, saying “we need a stable FIFA for the benefit of the game. The new president, whoever it may be, should lead football and work for the progress of the game.”

FIFA did not escape censure by Amnesty. In a statement, Qadri said yesterday: “FIFA has played its part in this sorry performance. It knew there were labor rights issues in Qatar.”
He added:
“FIFA has bent over backwards to make a Qatar World Cup work, even taking the unprecedented step of moving the tournament from summer to winter. But apart from occasional public statements the organization has not set any clear, concrete agenda for how it will push Qatar to ensure migrant workers’ rights are respected.”
In its own response to the report, FIFA said it has been working with Qatar authorities, Amnesty and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to achieve “consistent and sustained implementation of fair working conditions on FIFA World Cup construction sites as quickly as possible.”
While its focus remains on specific World Cup sites – the stadiums – FIFA added that it continues to “urge” Qatar authorities to ensure basic workers’ standards were also implemented country-wide.
It said it would put in place a “human rights due diligence procedure” for the World Cup, but stopped short of giving any detail on what this would include or how it would be enforced.

#WhenWeWon

Meanwhile, a new Twitter hashtag #لما_فزنا (when we won) has been making the rounds this week. On it, many people have been expressing pride and joy that the country is hosting the World Cup, while others are reminiscing about how the felt and where they were when the news was announced five years ago.

 Source:
http://dohanews.co/qatar-rejects-amnesty-criticism-on-anniversary-of-winning-world-cup-bid/

Qatar going to build cities for migrant workers

Qatar reportedly signed on Thursday the first contracts on a project that will eventually house almost 180,000 migrant workers in seven "cities".
According to AFP, the seven sites could be in operation within two years and are in addition to the $825 million Labour City, which opened earlier this year with a capacity for 70,000 workers.
Many of the labourers who will be housed on the sites will be working on infrastructure projects directly or indirectly related to the 2022 World Cup, AFP said.
Qatar has been criticised by rights groups and unions for providing sub-standard and squalid accommodation to labourers. 
It added that the contracts signed on Thursday are between government officials and members of the private sector for the first accommodation centre, which will be located in Umm Slal, north of Doha and will house around 24,000 workers.
All seven sites will be built through public-private partnerships and will be built across Qatar incorporating facilities such as cafeterias, television rooms, gyms, mosques and other religious centres.
AFP quoted Jamal Shareeda Al-Kaabi, a director of the Central Planning Office, as saying the aim of the project is to place labourers closer to their place of work as well as to improve accommodation standards.
"Basically we're trying to facilitate a proper housing accommodation that meets the standards and requirements of the state with the best practice."
Source:
 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/qatar-inks-first-deal-build-cities-for-180-000-migrant-workers-614251.html#.VmLLtOKSO7O

Here are the top FIFA Ballon d'Or men's player of the year honor victors since 1991. This grant is offered yearly to the player why should believed be the best on the planet, in view of votes by mentors of worldwide groups. This recompense is frequently mistaken for the now old Ballon d'Or European Footballer of the year which was granted from 1956 until 2009.
Since 2004 the voting procedure depends on a shortlist of 35 created by FIFA, from which group skippers and agents from FIFPro vote notwithstanding the national group supervisors. In 2010, the FIFA player of the year recompense was converged with the Ballon d'Or, and now the grant is known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or. Contrast this rundown with the player of the year as indicated by World Soccer magazine, furthermore the female player of the year.

Joining the FIFA Ballon d'Or (years 2010+) and FIFA World Player of the Year grants (1991 to 2009), Lionel Messi has won the grant four times, with different players having won it three times: Cristiano Ronaldo, Zidane and Ronaldo.

year	player	nationality
2014	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal
2013	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal
2012	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2011	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2010	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2009	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2008	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal
2007	Kaká	Brazil
2006	Fabio Cannavaro	Italy
2005	Ronaldinho	Brazil
2004	Ronaldinho	Brazil
2003	Zinedine Zidane	France
2002	Ronaldo	Brazil
2001	Luís Figo	Portugal
2000	Zinedine Zidane	France
1999	Rivaldo	Brazil
1998	Zinedine Zidane	France
1997	Ronaldo	Brazil
1996	Ronaldo	Brazil
1995	George Weah	Liberia
1994	Romário	Brazil
1993	Roberto Baggio	Italy
1992	Marco van Basten	Netherlands
1991	Lothar Matthäus	Germany										Source:	topendsports

Qatar is never bad, but now it's better place for workers like never before

The emirate would like it gives him act efforts and reforms made to modernize its labor law.
The Qatar is in the process of alignment with the highest standards of labor law and he wishes to know. A small explanation of text could well take place this week on the occasion of the 325th session of the governing council of the International Labor Organization (ILO) met in Geneva until 12 November.
The representatives from the Emirate have had enough of the Qatar bashing. In 2013, the Guardian published a survey in which he revealed the "appalling conditions of work of the foreign workers employed on the yards of the football World Cup of 2022" to be held in Doha.
Revelations which were added the alarmist reports of the ILO and the international trade union Confederation (ITUC-ITUC) on the Kafala, a system of sponsorship mediaeval in force among the emirates and which makes the foreign worker totally dependent on the good will of his employer, thus favoring the modern forms of slavery.
On 27 October, the Qatar has enacted a new law that buried this system and introduced the labor contract generalized. The reception has been mixed especially on the part of the NGOS which remain always wary when the promises made by the countries of the Gulf. However, it is precisely there that ca stuck. Qatar wants to finish with the amalgam fillings, especially when it is associated with the neighbors with which it does not share the same vision of the world nor the same objectives.
Suddenly, the representatives of Qatar are urging their detractors to read each line of the new law, which establishes a right guard for the worker and obliges the employer to obligations. The exit permit is thus repealed. The employee will not be able to see confiscate his passport in an arbitrary manner. The wages shall be compulsorily paid by bank transfer to cut short the abuse.
The number of labor inspectors will be him also increased and sanctions may be taken against offending employers. That is summarized some of the arrangements being put in place.
Given the magnitude of this reform, which is a first for the region, Qatar suggested to the ILO and its bodies to demonstrate greater extent to its respect. After India, the emirate is the second country to protest these past few weeks against "the instrumentalisation of the question of labor law for political purposes".
The emirate sees in the campaigns which have referred these last few months the hand of other countries opposed to the rising power of the Al-Thani in the regional game, be it through diplomacy or their willingness to make Doha a hub world of sport and culture. The ILO, antechamber of wars of influence? The hypothesis is not to exclude even if the representatives of the trade unions and the defenders of human rights see it as an argument of circumstance to escape criticism.

Source:
http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/geneve-internationale/qatar-veut-remettre-pendules-heure/story/31348448

What is ITUC agenda ?

In a late demonstration of the biggest exchange union ITUC, government has said that it can't comprehend ITUC motivation, as the exchange union has been accounted for to be inciting little work associations to go on all India strike on second September 2015.

A report arranged by insight organizations says ITUC is dealing with its exercises through its Indian offshoots — the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha and SEWA.

"ITUC (headed by its general secretary Sharan Burrow) and its offshoots are blaming India and its legislature for poor consistence with universal work benchmarks, particularly as to kid work. Most such strikes are a politically roused plan against the decision government," the dossier said. Indicating out the connection of INTUC (subsidiary Congress), the dossier said it had taken an interest in the across the country strike against the NDA government on September 2.

INTUC general secretary Rajendra Prasad Singh said the exchange union had nothing to cover up and the administration was more than welcome to research anything it needed. "All our subsidizing is represented. We get it through checks and it is properly evaluated. We are prepared for any sort of examination," he said.

The practices of the Union of trade unions denounced

Accustomed to denounce the abuses committed everywhere in the world at the expense of workers, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has this time came under the fire of criticism. Since several months, the trade union organization backed on to the International Labour Organization (ILO) is increasingly contested. Mandated to assist unions and orchestrate awareness campaigns worldwide for respect for worker’s rights, the ITUC has built strong hostility from some governments.

Recently, the vice president of the ITUC-CSI, G. Sanjeeva Reddy, also a former minister, criticized the methods and practices within the trade union confederation. G. Sanjeeva Reddy was surprised financial resources deployed by the ITUC-CSI to put his country in the dock and sabotage at the same time a negotiation process at the national level between the government and unions. A protest accompanied by accusations against companies and agents paid by the ITUC to conduct its communication campaigns.

Charges with a little more information came across internet in recent weeks, but anonymously. Main targets being Australian Sharan Burrow, ITUC general secretary and his closest collaborators, who orchestrated media campaigns that were extremely effective but also extreme costly. Attention is particularly drawn to the case of an employee who was also paid in respect of his company for telling lie against his working conditions, concerning communication in the media and on social networks.

One of the last campaigns of the ITUC-CSI was against Qatar and FIFA. The trade union confederation has produced a damning report in which it denounced the situation of workers employed on the site of the World Cup 2022 Football. For Sharan Burrow, this workforce is "tantamount to modern slavery”. The campaigns of the ITUC-CSI for Qatar result from a choice clearly expressed by the ILO policy office has found it necessary to make a focus on the situation of workers in this country. However, voices continue to rise behind the scenes to be surprised by the difference in treatment between Qatar and other Gulf monarchies.

Why did not she ITUC expressed the same zeal to denounce the treatment of workers in Saudi Arabia? Can we know? These repeated attacks are not surprising Burrow. "We are the target for several months of a disinformation campaign based on dissemination of false documents. This is intended to divert attention from the situation of workers in Qatar, "said the general secretary of the ITUC.

Source: Tribune deGeneve (TDG), Switzerland