Delivery & Legacy Committee Hires External Monitor to Audit Workers' Welfare

Doha, April 04 (QNA) - The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) appointed Sunday Impactt Ltd as an independent third party External Monitor to further bolster the auditing and inspections process of the SC Workers Welfare Standards (WW Standards). The WW Standards are a set of enforceable principles and regulations which are incorporated into all contracts for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar. The second edition of the WW Standards was published on March 1, and clearly sets out the SCs requirements regarding the recruitment, employment, living and working conditions of everyone engaged on an SC project. The new edition was developed by the SCs Workers Welfare Unit (WWU) in close consultation with stakeholders including contractors, FIFA and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). the new requirements update the original WW Standards, which were published back in February 2014. revised standards are now in the process of being further embedded throughout the supply chain in a series of workshops with contractors and sub-contractors. In addition to numerous visits by NGOs to SC projects, the WWU and senior SC management conducted a two-day trip to London in January 2016 to brief Amnesty International, Engineers Against Poverty, Building and Wood Workers International (BWI), Humanity United and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the updated standards, progress to date, and to get feedback from these organizations. Commenting on the independent third party External Monitor coming on board to enhance monitoring of the updated WW Standards, SC Secretary-General Hassan Al Thawadi, said "In line with our continued commitment to making tangible progress on workers' welfare, this appointment of an independent third party External Monitor is an important step for us. We will keep improving on every step of our journey as we make sure our approach to workers welfare progress is transparent and our updated standards are effectively and stringently enforced throughout the entire supply chain and life cycle of our projects." For his part, CEO of Verite Dan Viederman said that "In January of this year, Verite was commissioned by the SC to develop the technical scope of services for the appointment of an independent external monitor to assess compliance with the Worker's Welfare Standards on all SC projects". The addition of the independent third party External Monitor will mean independent audits of the SC and its contractors take place on a regular basis, completing the four-tier auditing process. Commenting on that development Director of Impactt Rosey Hurst said that Impactt was delighted at their appointment as External Workers Welfare Compliance Monitor. "Our approach is to put workers at the centre of everything we do, as we work to understand how and why labor standards abuses occur, to support remediation for any individual whose rights have been infringed and to build systems and practices to support decent jobs for workers now and in the future. We are looking forward to applying these principles with the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy when our engagement begins," Hurst added. Additionally, the WW standards related to the issue of Ethical Recruitment have been enhanced by the introduction of a requirement that Contractors obtain a signed statement from their Recruitment Agent evidencing the Agents compliance with the WW Standards, as well as a requirement for the Contractor to share with the SC a completed New Starter Checklist on each worker they recruit. The SC has maintained an open dialogue with stakeholders including governments of labor sending countries and international NGOs in this regard. Other changes to the Standard included Inserting a requirement for Contractors to pay all workers in accordance with the Wage Protection System (WPS), introduced by Law No. 1 of 2015 in November 2015. Also, inserting a requirement for the appointment of a Project Worker Welfare Officer once the number of workers on-site exceeds 500 workers to look after site welfare matters. A third modification was Inserting a mechanism for companies not working on SC projects to voluntarily adopt the WW Standards and come under the auditing & compliance regime and support systems of the SC. (QNA)