Qatar working on labor laws, ITUC allegations false again

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

Qatar wants to put the record straight

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 The exit permit is thus repealed.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.

The practices of ITUC criticized again

The zeal of the CSI-ITUC to expose the exploitation of workers in Qatar has made it worth to become the target of strong criticism itself.

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   

http://www.tdg.ch/news/standard/pratiques-union-syndicats-denoncees/story/17111553