Security guards hired via an organization with contracts at websites connected to the World Cup in Qatar are allegedly nonetheless being paid as low as 35 pence an hour, 4 months after the Guardian first printed their plight.
In a Guardian investigation, revealed at the eve of the World Cup, the guards alleged they had been being subjected to abusive practices, together with additional time pay underneath the criminal minimal. Interviews this month with safety guards hired via Al Nasr Star Security Services at a couple of websites recommend the problem of unlawful pay stays.
While the corporate will pay a fundamental salary in keeping with the regulation, additional time pay seems to be a long way underneath the criminal prohibit, with staff claiming they obtain most effective 150 rials (£34) for as much as 104 hours of additional time in a month, the an identical of not up to 35 pence an hour. The Guardian has observed pay notifications that beef up those allegations.
The findings name into query the repeated claims made via FIFA and the Qatari government that the World Cup would change into the remedy of masses of hundreds of low-wage staff within the nation. One guard claimed personnel on the corporate had change into emboldened within the wake of the World Cup, telling him: “Now Fifa is done you have to put up with the situation. There’s nowhere you can go and nothing you can do.”
In some cases, workers alleged they are being paid even less than before, after Al Nasr Star Security Services required them to take time off in an apparent attempt to comply with regulations limiting working hours. The guards opposed the change, saying they needed to work long hours to make up for their low wages.
“The situation has become worse. Now they are punishing us,” said one guard, who explained that after the Guardian’s report some workers were ordered to take more unpaid days off each month – what they call “forced offs” – resulting in cuts to their wages.
The revelations also raise questions about the role and influence of the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO), which has been working in partnership with the Qatari authorities since 2018 to introduce a number of labor reforms. The ILO office, which has given consistently positive assessments of Qatar’s progress on labor rights, attempted to intervene on behalf of the security guards, but appears to have failed to secure any improvement to their treatment.
The ILO said it was aware of the systemic challenges in the way the security sector operates. It said it had brought cases to the attention of the government, and that where companies were found to be acting illegally, it was the government’s responsibility to act.
Al Nasr Star Security Services is a major supplier of private security guards in Qatar, with contracts at numerous sites linked to the World Cup, including hotels and museums.
Despite enduring mind-numbing 12-hour shifts, workers are afraid to speak up. They are all paid recruitment agents in their own countries to secure their jobs and, however meagre their wages, they need to repay their debts and send money home to their families.
Reforms introduced by the Qatari authorities in 2020 should allow workers to look for better paying jobs, but the guards claim the company refuses to issue No Objection Certificates (NOC) if they request permission to leave. NOCs are not required by law, but have become a common excuse employers give to deny transfer requests.
“They will not give us an NOC. They say we must resign, go home and then come again [to get a different job], If we could leave, 75% would,” said one guard.
And so they feel trapped between the desperate need to earn money and the harsh conditions they must endure.
“I’m not happy but I can’t go back because I would be jobless. I have a family,” mentioned one, expressing the sentiments of many low-wage staff within the nation. “We’re being exploited but have no options.”
Al Nasr Star Security Services showed the site of the hard work camp the place one of the guards are accommodated, however didn’t reply to the rest allegations. The Qatari government had been approached for remark.