Category Archives: Workers’ rights

How many migrant workers have died in Qatar? What we know about the human cost of the 2022 World Cup

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This year’s tournament has been dominated by off-field matters. We look at the issues around the labor used to build the tournament’s infrastructure

The deaths of migrant workers in Qatar in the build-up to this year’s World Cup have drawn criticism across the world. While the tournament’s organizers put the official count at 40, estimates by the Guardian put the figure in the thousands. Here we explore the key questions around an issue that has tarnished the World Cup for many fans.

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Workers at Amazon’s largest air hub in the world push to form a union

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Employees at the company’s hub outside Cincinnati Northern Kentucky international airport are now mobilizing

Amazon workers at the air hub outside the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky international airport, Amazon’s largest air hub in the world, are pushing to organize a union in the latest effort to mobilize workers at the tech company.

Workers say they are dissatisfied with annual wage increases this year. About 400 of them have signed a petition to reinstate a premium hourly pay for Amazon’s peak season that hasn’t been enacted at the site yet. Their main demands also include a $30 an hour starting wage, 180 hours of paid time off and union representation at disciplinary hearings.

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Report finds misogyny, racism and bullying at London fire brigade

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Author Nazir Afzal labelled the service ‘institutionally misogynist and racist’ and hoped the review would be a ‘turning point’

Incidents of misogyny, racism and bullying have been exposed by an independent report on the culture at the UK’s largest firefighting and rescue organisation.

Female firefighters have been groped, beaten and had their helmets filled with urine, a review of the London fire brigade has found.

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UK plans for ‘sunsetting’ EU laws post-Brexit ‘not fit for purpose’

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Independent assessor deeply critical of proposals to discard up to 4,000 pieces of EU-derived legislation

The plans for discarding EU-derived laws following Brexit have been called “not fit for purpose” by the government’s own independent assessor.

Under new legislation that was the brainchild of the former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, thousands of laws copied from the EU to Britain’s statute book will be “sunsetted” by the end of next year if they are not each signed off by ministers to be kept.

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Security guards at Doha World Cup park claim they are paid just 35p an hour

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Migrant workers in Qatar working as guards at Al-Bidda Park appear to get one day off a month and are housed in dirty camps on the edge of the desert

Migrant workers employed as security guards in a huge park that will be at the heart of Qatar’s World Cup festivities appear to be being paid as little as 35 pence an hour.

The men are stationed across Al Bidda Park, a pristine green space adjoining the Fifa Fan Festival. Throughout the tournament Al Bidda Park will be packed with football fans enjoying the sweeping lawns, shaded picnic spots and views over Doha. The guards interviewed are not contracted to Fifa or deployed in the Festival.

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‘A cop out’: staff condemn NSW parliament’s statement on cultural problems

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Exclusive: ‘Statement of acknowledgment’ fails to recognise Indigenous, culturally diverse or LGBTQIA+ perspectives, say critics

A “statement of acknowledgment” of widespread cultural problems within the New South Wales parliament currently fails to recognise the experiences of Indigenous, culturally diverse and LGBTQIA+ staffers, with one calling it “a cop out”.

A draft form of the acknowledgment, made in response to workplace issues identified by the damning Broderick report, has been circulated ahead of the final to version being delivered in parliament on Tuesday.

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World Cup stadium workers ‘had their money stolen and lives ruined’, says rights group

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Report on conditions in Qatar alleges labour abuses are widespread and calls on Fifa to set up compensation fund

Migrant workers who constructed stadiums for the World Cup in Qatar have endured “persistent and widespread labour rights violations”, which include nationality-based discrimination, illegal recruitment practices and, in some cases, unpaid wages, according to allegations in a new report by the human rights group Equidem.

While the report also documents a number of cases of good practice, including “adequate channels for reporting concerns with working conditions”, good access to healthcare, satisfactory safety measures and decent living conditions, Equidem’s findings conclude that Qatar has been a “hostile environment” for stadium workers.

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Minister and trade union lawyer clash over post-Brexit ‘sunset clause’

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Nusrat Ghani accuses Unison representative of fearmongering after MPs hear laws could ‘disappear overnight’

The government has clashed with trade unions over claims that 20 days of statutory holiday and eight bank holidays, along with a “tapestry” of workers’ rights, are at risk under post-Brexit plans to remove EU laws from the UK’s statute books.

Shantha David, head of legal services at Unison, told a parliamentary committee examining the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill that these rights “would no longer survive” if automatically removed via the “sunset clause” that will sweep away EU laws unless they are actively saved by a minister on 31 December 2023.

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Queensland police commissioner vows to do more to protect whistleblowers after inquiry revelations

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Officers who made complaints say internal witness support unit is understaffed and overwhelmed

Queensland’s police commissioner has vowed to do more to protect whistleblowers, after an inquiry revealed that officers who expose sexual abuse, misogyny and racism in the service often face reprisals from their colleagues.

Police who made complaints against their colleagues have told Guardian Australia that the internal witness support unit – established to support whistleblowers who report breaches of discipline, misconduct or corrupt conduct – is understaffed and overwhelmed.

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Rishi Sunak urged to scrap ‘undemocratic’ proposals to axe 2,400 laws

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Charities and trade unions among those calling on new PM to shelve bill that would scrap EU-era legislation protecting workers’ rights and the environment

Employers, trade unions, lawyers and environmentalists are calling on Rishi Sunak to scrap Jacob Rees-Mogg’s legislation that would sweep away 2,400 laws derived from the EU.

The retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill is due for its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday, which would scrap protections including the ban on animal testing for cosmetics, workers’ rights and environmental measures.

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Queensland police discipline failures in ‘clear breach’ of workplace health and safety laws, says lawyer

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Commissioner says not all officers have had a safe workplace as critics label complaints procedure a joke

The Queensland Police Service continues to employ frontline officers whose actions resulted in payouts worth millions of dollars to victims of bullying and harassment, Guardian Australia has learned.

The commission of inquiry into Queensland police responses to domestic violence has revealed dozens of instances where officers were found to have engaged in racism, sexism, misogyny and bullying. In many of these cases, officers were repeat offenders and not subject to disciplinary action.

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Truss promises to slash EU red tape – what’s the truth behind the rhetoric?

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Experts take a forensic look at the PM’s promise to axe to up to 2,400 laws on British statute books

Liz Truss has promised to “consign to history” all EU red tape within the next year, axing to up to 2,400 laws on British statute books.

It was not just party conference rhetoric. Her government is planning to pass legislation to give itself the power to simply switch off 40 years of EU harmonisation legislation at the stroke of midnight 31 December 2023. No list of laws targeted has been published.

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Gig workers to get rights to workers comp under NSW Labor election promise

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Gig, disability and home care workers would also gain access to a portable entitlement scheme

Uber delivery drivers and casual employees will be able to claim compensation if injured at work and take entitlements from job to job if Labor wins the New South Wales election.

New entitlements would make gig workers more resilient and make the labour environment less precarious in general, the state opposition said on Sunday.

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California’s fast-food industry calls for referendum on new labor legislation

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Law provides for councils to represent workers, but opponents claim menu prices will increase and restaurants will close

The fast-food industry is seeking to overturn one of the most significant labor wins in recent American history by trying to scrap a new law in California that will establish an industry council for the sector on wage standards and other regulations, including safety.

The Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, AB 257, was signed into law by the California governor, Gavin Newsom, on 5 September in what is seen as a huge fillip to a US labor movement seeking to capitalize on a wave of unionization drives.

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Farmers fined for failing to comply with workplace laws as new minimum wage takes effect

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Compliance blitz by Fair Work Ombudsman has found many farmers continue to flout rules designed to protect workers from exploitation

Many farmers are continuing to defy workplace laws designed to protect vulnerable workers, including failing to provide them with proper payslips, a compliance push by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has found.

Since December, inspectors have targeted more than 200 farms across the country and found that in some areas as many as 60% were non-compliant with workplace laws. It’s a result the National Farmer’s Federation (NFF) described as “troubling”.

It comes after new laws requiring farmers to start paying a minimum wage to pickers under the horticultural award came into effect in April.

The FWO would not say if any of the infringements were to do with the award changes, but compliance notices are typically served to employers when they have underpaid workers.

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Oman ‘failing to stop trafficking and abuse of migrant domestic workers’

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Report finds widespread instances of forced labour, with women denied access to passports and subjected to physical or sexual abuse

Oman is failing to protect migrant domestic workers who are victims of human trafficking, trapped in abusive households and subjected to physical and sexual violence with no access to justice or a safe route home, a report has found.

Do Bold, an organisation that works to assist and repatriate migrant workers trapped in the Gulf, interviewed 469 domestic workers from Sierra Leone working in Oman, for the report. It concluded that all but one of the women interviewed were victims of forced labour and human trafficking.

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Growers and immigration experts slam proposal to allow workers to be part-paid in fruit and veg

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National Farmers’ Federation wants ‘non-monetary benefits’ such as food and board to be considered in pay deals

The National Farmers’ Federation proposal to take “non-monetary benefits” into account when negotiating pay deals has attracted strong criticism from farmers and immigration experts who claim it could erode workers’ rights.

Chris Kelly, a Victorian grain grower, said the proposal was “appalling” and called it an attempt to “stretch the boundaries” of what was reasonable and fair.

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End to Covid leave payment and RAT subsidy ‘disincentives’ for casuals to be tested

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Australian Council of Social Services says end of supports amid new wave of virus leaves insecure workers more exposed

Lilly Hallett has become accustomed to regular lentil meals amid recent spiralling costs of living as a way to curb everyday expenses.

But the Melbourne-based casual call centre employee is also now trying to stash away part of her income in case she becomes reinfected with Covid, amid a surge in cases driven by the highly infectious Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

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TUC issues workers’ rights warning over post-Brexit trade deals

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Exclusive: Union organisation says ministers in talks with 13 countries with poor track record

Ministers have been accused of pushing for post-Brexit trade deals with more than a dozen countries around the world that do not guarantee workers’ rights or systematically violate employee protections.

The Trades Union Congress said ministers were in active talks with 13 nations with a worrying track record on employment rights, including Brazil, Burundi, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in order to secure trade deals after leaving the EU.

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Hong Kong NETs – foreign teachers of English – forced to take allegiance oath

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Authoritarian measures are widened to meet Chinese loyalty requirements, despite fears it will worsen teacher shortages

Foreign English-language teachers working in Hong Kong government schools will need to swear allegiance to the city, officials have ordered, as fears grow about the territory’s ability to retain educators in the face of increasing restrictions.

Hong Kong’s education bureau said on Saturday that native-speaking English teachers (NETs) and advisers working in government-run schools must sign a declaration by 21 June in order to continue working.

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