A total of 4.5m construction workers around the world are victims of forced labour, new guidance that aims to help clients and construction firms avoid worker exploitation has claimed.
NGO KnowTheChain, which tracks corporate efforts to address forced labour in supply chains, warned construction firms and investors to carry out human rights checks to prevent worker exploitation.
Its guidance cited International Labour Organisation (ILO) figures claiming that construction is second only to domestic work in terms of the risk it presents for forced labour, with 18% of all forced labour victims working in construction.
Among the abuse victims of forced labour in construction can suffer, KnowTheChain identified: non-payment of wages, debt bondage, and being lost in complex supply chains. It said the risks for the sector’s significant migrant workforce were higher than for workers in their own country.
KnowTheChain’s partner organisation Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) looked specifically at construction in the Gulf and Middle East regions, where global construction firms are a major employer.
BHRRC found that just 39% of the 49 construction companies surveyed operating in Qatar and the UAE have a public commitment to human rights, while only three disclosed measures to ensure their contractors pay their workers in full and on time.
Recruitment fees
Meanwhile in Jordan and Lebanon, just two out of 38 construction companies have policies to prevent workers being forced to pay recruitment fees, and just one disclosed information on how it ensures wages are paid on time for all hours worked. KnowTheChain’s guidance cited figures from a New York Times report last year which found that some migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates have to pay $1,000-$1,500 in recruitment fees – the equivalent of at least five months’ wages.
KnowTheChain singled out Laing O’Rourke and Vinci for praise, however, citing them as examples of good practice. Laing O’Rourke conducts due diligence and pre-qualification of recruitment agents, includes clauses requiring ethical recruitment in contracts, has oversight of the recruitment process in labour-sending countries, and makes mechanisms available to workers to report the charging of recruitment fees.
Vinci facilitates a workers’ welfare committee, where worker representatives can be elected by their peers. The committee meets bi-monthly, and workers can raise their concerns with staff and managers from various departments of the company on wages, working and living conditions, and leave.
Despite the focus on the Gulf and Middle East, however, KnowTheChain also warned that abuses occur in the UK too, highlighting a claim in a 2018 Reuters report that a third of the country’s 100,000 construction workers from Europe have carried out work for no pay.
United Nations Guiding Principles
In its guidance it called on investors to ensure that construction firms undertake human rights due diligence in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and disclose their efforts.
Felicitas Weber, KnowTheChain project lead, said: “The global construction sector is growing rapidly, but companies’ human rights policies are not keeping up with this growth. The sector has a systemic problem of forced labour, and right now companies show a lack of action to address this appalling abuse.
“Responsible investors have a role to play in ensuring the sector’s growth doesn’t increase the risk of construction workers being forced into exploitation.
“This guidance provides construction investors with the tools they need to drive meaningful change in this sector, avoid risk, and protect workers from forced labour and abuse.”
