The Beautiful Game The Qatar World Cup 2022

Transcription

1 Journal of Business Ethics Education 12: NeilsonJournals Publishing. The Beautiful Game The Qatar World Cup 2022 John March and Chris Wilson Leeds University Business School, Leeds University, UK Abstract. The case study concerns the issues arising from the much-reported maltreatment of Nepalese migrant workers engaged in the building of facilities for the 2022 Qatar World Cup event. The central learning and teaching objective arising from the case is the exploration of responsibility for this circumstance. The contextual features of the case include globalisation, state/corporate relationships and complexity. Teaching notes supply readings on three constituent topics: ethical dimensions of globalisation, complexity and supply chain integrity, corporate responsibility. The teaching notes also include a teaching plan and suggestions for follow-up and research-based assignments. Keywords: Qatar World Cup, Nepalese migrant labour, globalisation, corporate responsibility, stakeholder analysis, global supply chain. Notes on Sources: The case study has been constructed from a variety of secondary sources. Although investigative reporters and commentators were contacted when researching the case, their views are not explicitly represented in the text. In a secret ballot held in 2010 in Zurich, Switzerland, world football s governing body Fifa 1 awarded the Arab Gulf state of Qatar the rights to hold the 2022 World Cup. 2 One of the most prestigious and most-watched sporting events on the planet, the World Cup attracts global interest and consequently, if managed well, lucrative financial and reputational gain for the host nation. 3 Qatar gained independence from Britain in and has since become one of the world s richest countries thanks to its vast reserves of oil and gas. 5 Recently, its government has overseen a period of unprecedented economic growth with GDP rising at an average of 10% per year since In parallel 1. Fifa is a not-for-profit organisation and is funded primarily through a range of agreements which see the sale of rights for players and tournaments transferred to sponsors, which consist of global brands such as McDonalds and Coca Cola. It holds financial surpluses of over 1 billion US dollars and has a purpose which is to develop and improve physical and social wellbeing by spreading the game of football. 2. Fifa, Bohlmann and van Heerden, Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Qatar, World Bank, 2015 Subscribers are granted a licence to make 1 copy of the paper for personal use only. Apart from this licenced copy, none of the material protected by the copyright notice can be reproduced or used in any form either electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any other information recording or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the owner(s) of the copyright. For multiple copy orders and reprint permissions contact the JBEE Publishing Editor, pneilson@neilsonjournals.com. All rights reserved NeilsonJournals Publishing.

2 160 The Beautiful Game The Qatar World Cup 2022 with this economic growth has been large-scale modernisation, urbanisation and, in the eyes of some Qatari citizens, Westernisation. Having been granted the World Cup, Qatar needs to create clusters of stadiums and towns, which will be supported by wholly new rail and road infrastructures. Traditionally, given the population of Qatar (less than two million people), such projects are constructed by its migrant worker population, which currently accounts for over 90% of those residing within Qatar. This group is growing rapidly in number. 7 Nepalese workers represent the largest proportion of migrants in Qatar, with around 340,000 Nepalese living there in Despite being so crucial to the development of the Qatari nation-state, journalists and labour activists have alleged that Nepalese migrant workers have been subjected to an array of maltreatments that represent human rights abuses. In 2014 UK investigative reporters estimated that a Nepalese migrant worker dies every two days from causes as varied as workplace accidents, heart attacks and cardiac arrests, 9 whilst the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation have estimated a death toll of 4000 migrant workers by the time the tournament begins. 10 Migration is an entrenched feature in the lives of Nepalese young men. Moving abroad to work is not just a survival strategy but also seen as a rite of passage, a necessary step to take on the transition to adulthood. 11 This migratory behaviour has been engrained in the Nepalese way of life, and for centuries Nepalese workers have been moving to India for work and more recently, to the Middle East and Qatar. Remittances from abroad have been estimated to constitute about one-fifth of Nepal s total GDP, and this figure may well be higher given that the vast majority of Nepalese migrant workers abroad use informal banking channels to send money home. 12 For their part, Nepalese migrants cite an absence of job opportunities at home for their economic migration, coupled with the necessity to provide a wage to support their family. 13 Nepal, meanwhile, is a country characterised by poverty, endemic corruption and a near-total absence of any employment-creating industry besides agriculture and farming; 14,15 these primary activities offer a risky livelihood given the frequency and severity of the natural disasters that have struck the mountainous territory in recent years. 16 In Qatar, Nepalese migrant workers have complained of having to work 12- hour days in 50 degree heat, not being able to access clean water to drink and wash, an absence of safe, decent living accommodation and the confiscation of passports, which in turn restricts their movement and prevents them from 7. Gulf Labour Markets and Migration, 2014, p.6 8. Gulf Labour Markets and Migration, 2014, p Gibson and Pattisson, ITUC, Brusle, 2008, p Bohra and Massey, 2009, p Valentin, Levi, The Economist, Reuters, 2015

3 Journal of Business Ethics Education returning should they want to leave the country. 17 Many Nepalese migrant workers have said they have been lied to by their employers in terms of their remuneration, and the Kathmandu recruitment agencies which send workers to Qatar have been accused of providing false contracts and charging extortionate fees only affordable through taking out high-interest loans. 18 The situation has been brought to the attention of worldwide human rights bodies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who have published a number of reports that profile individual cases of abuse, seeking a remedy to what is alleged to be a dangerous and possibly deadly situation for migrants. Increasingly, these NGOs have pressured the state of Qatar to end their controversial migrant labour law system kafala. Kafala requires a foreign employee to sign a contract which binds him to an employer, and, amongst other restrictions, means he cannot leave the country without their permission. 19 It has been widely judged that the kafala law produces conditions that equate to a modern form of slavery, and Qatar has been recently described by the ITUC in these emotive terms as a slave-state. 20 In response, the Qatari state commissioned an extensive report conducted by international law firm DLA Piper which proposed a set of recommendations on how best to improve working conditions. 21 To complete the massive construction projects at hand, the state of Qatar has contracted multinational construction companies from all over the world, who bid for lucrative, long-term contracts and often commence operations in the Gulf territory as a minority joint-venture partner with a Qatari firm. 22 In 2015, the French firm Vinci was taken to court in Paris for providing slave-like conditions on its Qatar World Cup projects allegations which it disputed, claiming that it abides by all relevant local and national labour laws in its foreign Qatari subsidiary. 23 Meanwhile, UK firm Carillion was forced to respond to similar allegations. 24 In March 2015 the UK Government introduced the Modern Slavery Act a new law which sees firms associated with the United Kingdom required to document the steps they are taking to eliminate modern slavery and trafficking from its supply chain wherever possible. Many nation states have also signed up to the voluntary Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whilst its more recent corporate equivalent, the Global Compact, has amassed thousands of subscribers worldwide. 17. Pattisson, 2013A 18. Pattisson, 2013B 19. Khan, Peck, DLA Piper, Practical Law, Willsher, Lloyd-Roberts, 2014

4 162 The Beautiful Game The Qatar World Cup 2022 Concerns about the working and living conditions of migrant workers engaged in realising the World Cup sites in Qatar have been reported widely in the press. The voices of players and fans have also been raised at the uncomfortable perception that The Beautiful Game will, in 2022, be played out at an unacceptable human cost.

5 Journal of Business Ethics Education References: Bohlmann, H. R. and van Heerden, J. H. (2008), Predicting the Economic Impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on South Africa, International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 3(4): pp Bohra, P. and Massey, D. (2009), Processes of Internal and International Migration from Chitwan, Nepal, International Migration Review, 43(3): pp Brusle, T. (2008), Choosing a Destination and Work: Migration Strategies of Nepalese Workers in Uttarakhand, Northern India, Mountain Research and Development, 28(3/4): pp DLA Piper (2014), Migrant Labour in the Construction Sector in the State of Qatar, (9 th June). Available at resourceid=58 Fifa (2010), 2022 FIFA World Cup Awarded to Qatar, (30 th August). Available at Gibson, O. and Pattisson, P. (2014), Death Toll among Qatar s 2022 World Cup Workers Revealed, (16 th June). Available at Government of Qatar (2015), Business and Finance, (29 th May). Available at portal. Gulf Labour Markets and Migration (2014), Demography, Migration and Labour Market in Qatar, (16 th June). Available at GLMM_ExpNote_ pdf?sequence=1 ITUC (2014), ITUC Special Report: The Case Against Qatar, (9 th June). Available at Khan, A. (2014), Why It s Time to End Kafala, (25 th May). Available at Levi, W. (1956), Politics in Nepal, Institute of Pacific Relations, 25(3): pp Lloyd-Roberts, S. (2014), Qatar 2022: Construction Firms Accused amid Building Boom, (23 rd June). Available at Pattisson, P. (2013A), Revealed: Qatar s World Cup Slaves, (12 th May). Available at Pattisson, P. (2013B), Nepalese Workers in Qatar: Exploitation of Migrants Starts at Home, (20 th May 2015). Available at Peck, T. (2015), Fifa Urged to Act over Workers Rights in Slave-State Qatar, (25 th May 2015). Available at Practical Law (2013), Multi-Jurisdictional Guide 2013/13: Construction and Projects. Construction and Projects in Qatar: Overview, (28 th June). Available at uk.practicallaw.com/ Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2013), The Political System, (8 th June). Available at Reuters (2015), Nepal Quake Toll Becomes Highest on Record; Dozens Still Missing, (26 th June). Available at The Economist (2011), Aid and Corruption in Nepal: Low Road Through the Himalayas, (22 nd June). Available at Valentin, K. (2012), The Role of Education in Mobile Livelihoods: Social and Geographical Routes of Young Nepalese Migrants in India, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 43(4): pp Willsher, K. (2015), France: Vinci Construction Investigated over Qatar Forced Labour Claims, (6 th June). Available at World Bank (2015), Nepal: Overview, (10 th June). Available at country/nepal/overview#1

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