BERLIN — The labor minister of Qatar, which confronted intense scrutiny over its remedy of migrant staff within the run-up to final yr’s World Cup soccer event, was elected Monday because the president of the United Nations labor company’s annual convention.
Asian and Pacific nations proposed Ali bin Samikh al-Marri to steer the International Labor Agency’s two-week convention in Geneva. Regional teams take turns nominating the assembly’s chair.
After Qatar was named host of the 2022 World Cup, the labor situations in a rustic the place over 2 million migrants work in all the pieces from building jobs to service industries got here underneath a highlight.
Rights teams stated staff confronted unsafe working situations, together with excessive warmth that had triggered deaths, in addition to exploitation by employers, regardless of reforms instituted by Qatar.
Qatari officers say stronger laws over work situations have been imposed underneath the reforms. They have stated three staff died in office accidents linked to the development of latest stadiums for the World Cup over the previous decade, together with 37 different stadium staff who died outdoors the office throughout that point.
They argue that accident charges on the stadiums are akin to others world wide.
The International Labor Conference brings collectively authorities, employer and employee delegates from the company’s 187 member nations.
Al-Marri was elected with out dissent to preside over the gathering. The head of delegates representing staff acknowledged Qatar’s reforms but additionally famous that after the World Cup, labor unions expressed had expressed doubts about “if there was sufficient commitment to the necessary further implementation to address the continuous plight of migrant workers.”
The head of the employees’ delegates, Catelene Passchier, stated there had been “extensive conversations” in current weeks, leading to “a joint understanding that re-engagement and speeding-up of the reforms and their implementation are necessary” to deal with excellent points.
In mild of that, she stated, “the workers’ group can accept the nomination of Qatar as president of the conference.”
Al-Marri thanked delegates for his or her confidence and pointed to “fundamental” modifications to labor safety in Qatar.
“We know that there is further work that we need to achieve, and we are committed to doing so,” he stated, including that his nation had invited two international union federations to debate “further labor protection.”
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