W.When Fifa executives hit the tarmac next November at the start of 2022 in Doha World Championship Finally, your next stop is likely to be check-in at one of Qatar’s glitzy opulent hotels, built to provide the most luxurious backdrop for the world’s greatest sporting event.
Now, one year before the first game, fans who want to emulate the lifestyle of the sports elite can get going to the FIFA hospitality website plan their stay in the host country. There you can browse through a catalog of exclusive Fifa-supported accommodations, from boutique hotels to five-star resorts.
But behind the scenes at some of these hotels, while guests lounge around the pool or sip cocktails at the bar, immigrant hotel workers claim they are struggling to survive on an hourly wage of £ 1.
The Guardian stayed or visited seven of the hotels listed on Fifa’s hospitality website, and interviewed and interviewed more than 40 workers – both directly and through subcontractors – exposed a number of allegations of serious labor law violations and low wages. The hotels were not named to protect the identity of the workers who spoke to the Guardian.
Many workers claimed they worked extremely long hours and some said they had not had a day off in months. While spending their days in the most luxurious of surroundings, some workers said they were housed in overcrowded rooms in stuffy labor camps. Some workers claimed their passports had been confiscated. Many said her employer would not let her change.
While rooms in the hotels listed on Fifa’s hospitality website run at up to £ 820 per night when purchased as part of a package, Almost every worker the Guardian spoke to who did housekeeping, security, valet parking, cleaning, or gardening reported making less than £ 1.25 an hour. Many worked for less than a pound an hour.
Workers made several allegations of violations of Qatar’s labor law, suggesting shortcomings in Qatar Labor reforms. These promised an end to the abusive working conditions and the kafala Sponsorship system, which meant that workers could not change jobs or leave the country without their employer’s consent.
The workers’ allegations also imply that Fifa has failed to effectively conduct basic reviews of the Guardian-investigated hotels that it included in its catalog, in violation of its own catalog Human rights policywhich requires her to prevent abuse of work in connection with her job.
While most of the workers the Guardian spoke to received salaries around the new Minimum wage, which went into effect in March 2021, that wage is still just £ 1 an hour plus a small allowance for food and board.
The guard also has seen in the FIFA catalog the pay slips of a worker directly employed in a hotel showing his base wage rose from 750 rials (£ 150) to 1,000 rials (£ 200) a month when the minimum wage was introduced, but grants for groceries or transportation, for example, were cut by the same amount so that his salary stayed the same.
“Sometimes I wonder why I came here,” he says. “The World Cup is a big thing and everyone enjoys it, but how they treat us … we’re all sick of it.”
When darkness fell on one of the properties in the Fifa brochure, the guests retired into the house and let David *, a migrant worker from Africa, work near the swimming pool.
A night in a standard hotel room costs more than David earns a month. He really wants to change jobs, but Despite recent government legislation allowing it, he said he was trapped. “My friends tried to change jobs, but our company is refusing to let them go,” he said. “We have to accept it. Our boss does what he wants. “
My friends tried to change jobs, but our company refuses to let them go … Our boss does what he wantsDavid, hotel worker
The hotel has sumptuous suites and a marble-lined lobby, but its own accommodations are very different: a small room shared with five others in a shabby compound on the outskirts of Doha.
Ranjit, a security guard, was on duty nearby, as he had for the past 11 hours. Ranjit’s salary is around 80 pence an hour. Still for he kept nothing for five months; everything went To pay off the illegal £ 1,300 fee, he was forced to send a recruiter home to secure the job. “It’s a scam,” he said. “Here they suck your blood.”
Some workers in the seven hotels said they were satisfied with their work and the accommodations for staff in their hotels. However, the majority said they felt caught between demands from their employers and the need to make money for their families in their own country.
In a hotel, a One worker claimed that management would only give bonuses to employees who handed over their passports. It is illegal for employers to keep employee passports Qatar.
“We fell into a trap and can’t get out,” said another hotel employee.
With 1.2 million fans expected during the World Cup, the hospitality industry can look forward to a lucrative tournament.
Some hotels have shown best practice by recruiting their employees directly through online ads rather than through recruitment agencies, who often charge extortionate and illegal fees from recruits, but even at these properties the Guardian had a say Employees who received very low wages.
Splendid new buildings were erected for the World Cup tournament. Photo: Pete Pattisson
The worst allegations of abuse were made by subcontracted workers, particularly hotel security guards and gardeners.
At another hotel on the Fifa website, a Kenyan security officer was just starting his 12-hour shift, which spanned over 15 hours, as he increased travel time to and from his labor camp.
If he works all month without a break, he makes 2,000 rials (£ 400); far less than he was promised when he was employed in Kenya. If he took a day off, his employer would cut his wages by 50 rials (£ 10). Not that he had that opportunity often. “In the summer we had to work three months with no day off,” he said.
His passport was confiscated by his company. “Maybe they think that when you have your passport, you can flee to another company,” he said. “We have no other option, so we take what’s on the table.”
The Guardian’s results have put the umbrella organization of world football right in the spotlight criticized by Amnesty International for a hands-off approach to employee rights in the host country. A spokesman for Fifa said she takes “any claim regarding the rights of workers involved in hosting Fifa events very seriously.”
The spokesman said a dedicated team is putting in place an audit and compliance system for companies involved in running the World Cup, including hotels, to ensure workers’ rights are respected. “While there is still room for improvement, we have seen significant progress at many hotels in Qatar over the past few months,” added the spokesman.
Isobel Archer, Gulf labor rights specialist for the Business & Human Rights Resource Center (BHRRC), a London-based charity, said hotels must recognize their responsibility to all workers, including those employed by subcontractors.
“If hotel brands put half the effort into questioning their suppliers’ labor practices, including the height of the reception desk or the density of the pillows in the guest rooms, we would see a change for hotel workers,” she said.
A BHRRC report that year also found evidence of widespread exploitation of hotel workers in Qatar, which it said should be a “red flag” for soccer teams, fans and corporate sponsors.
A Qatari official said the government takes “any violation of its labor laws very seriously, including in the hospitality industry.” The official said Qatar has a zero tolerance approach to corporate violations and has imposed harsh penalties, including fines and jail time.
“Awareness-raising initiatives have been launched to provide workers with information on how to lodge complaints against their employer and new mechanisms have been put in place to facilitate better access to justice,” added the official.
* Names have been changed or omitted to protect workers’ identity.
