Belgium, (Brussels Morning) – As the World Cup 2022 nears, Qatar is on the headlines concerning migrant workers. Opposite to the criticism we see in the Media Sources across the World; new facts and statistics are now published by ILO which praises Qatar reforms.
Experts argue that Qatar has done its best to fix its migrant workers systems and now is fully compliant with ILO, FIFA and UN related standards. Yet, the reason behind the anti Qatar discourse seems to be pushed by lobbyists and PR companies who ignore UN, FIFA and ILO reports.
Brussels Morning spoke to Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ MEP about the recent ILO report which praised Qatar reforms regarding migrant workers.
He would like to encourage Qatar to continue on this path and keep improving its labour conditions. There are still many challenges ahead of Qatar that need to be addressed and fixed. The MEP is still concerned about the human rights of migrant workers in Qatar
I welcome efforts made by Qatar regarding the country’s labour law and migrant worker reforms. The ILO’s report underlines that the labour reforms introduced in 2018 positively impacted working conditions in Qatar.
He also added, “I would like to encourage Qatar to continue on this path and keep improving its labour conditions. There are still many challenges ahead of Qatar that need to be addressed and fixed.”
The median basic wage of a worker is QR 1,400 for males. While for women it is QR 1,000 which is 275 USD. If we talk about the net income it will be around Q1, 600 for men and QR 1,350 for females. All the low-working workers are earning up to QR 1,400 which is 389 USD. It is hard for them to cover daily expenses. The working hours are quite long and it is hectic during the summer.
The Wage Protection System (WPS) will allow the Government to monitor salaries. They must have allowances paid on time. If they detect some violations, action must be taken against them. This system will help reduce wage disputes among workers. Moreover, it will be helpful to reduce some of the workloads quite easily.
According to ILO, Around 67,128 companies are registered and out of them, 913 are showing WPS violations. According to a new survey around 98% of workers have responded to receive their payments on time. They will receive wages through the bank. While at least 11% will receive it in cash.
However, domestic workers are not covered by WPS. They may offer more benefits for domestic works shortly though. Everything about it will be explored with MOL. There is no doubt that non-payment of wages and other benefits continues to become the major reason for complaints.
