22/04/2021 Salary Abuses Facing Migrant Workers Ahead of Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 | HRW resolve cases of wage abuses in a speedy, and compassionate manner for workers. DONATE NOW Summary Improve the workings and systems of the WPS so that Salary Information Files are more detailed and comprehensive; alerts are dealt with in a strict manner; and ensure that companies are providing workers with timesheets and itemized pay slips; finalize the process of e-contracts to ensure that workers’ contract details including basic wages are accurately and automatically recorded in the WPS. Monitor and ensure that companies are not doing business with recruitment agencies and subcontractors, in Qatar and abroad, that charge workers fees or costs for travel, visas, employment contracts, or anything else. Ensure that any recruitment costs, fees or charges that workers incur in order to migrate are reimbursed to them by their employers. I. Background Qatar, one of the world’s wealthiest states on a per capita basis, is almost entirely reliant on some 2 million migrant workers who represent around 95 per cent of the country’s total labor force and who are primarily employed in the construction and service industries.[6] Without such workers, many of whom come from some of the world’s poorest countries in search of better work opportunities, the country would grind to a halt.[7] A decade ago, in December 2010, Qatar won the right to host the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup 2022.[8] Qatar’s initial estimates for infrastructure expenditure for the world’s largest sporting event were as high as US$220 billion.[9] According to the International Trade Union Conference’s Frontline Report in 2015, this set up Qatari and international infrastructure companies to expect a tidy sum of $15 billion in profits.[10] Since then, it is likely that the costs for the infrastructure of the World Cup will have increased. The Qatari government awarded 11 multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to international and local companies for the construction of the Doha Metro.[11] Seven new state-of-the-art stadiums with advanced open-air cooling technology are being built from scratch for the 2022 event, the majority of which are still under construction.[12] The construction of the gleaming Hamad International Airport, sprawling over 5,400 acres of land, with two of Asia’s longest runways, took over a decade and cost $16 billion.[13] As these investments grow, so do profits. https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/08/24/how-can-we-work-without-wages/salary-abuses-facing-migrant-workers-ahead-qatars 10/62