Qatar slave labour and London university UCL

This video says about itself:

A labourer and electrician tell all about working in Qatar

27 September 2012

International unions, the ITUC and BWI, have issued a formal complaint to the International Labour Organisation, presenting evidence that Qatar is breaching global freedom of association standards by refusing to recognise the rights of migrant workers. Watch these Nepalese workers talk about what working life in Qatar is really like.

By Luke James in Britain:

UCL failing to stampout Qatar campus ‘slavery’

Thursday 21st August 2014

LEADING London university UCL was named and shamed yesterday for failing to take action tostop “modern-day slavery” conditions at its international campus in Qatar.

UCL is under pressure to act on human rights violations at Doha’s Education City uncovered by an International Trades Union Congress (ITUC) probe.

The ITUC raised the conditions with bosses of UCL and seven other global universities that operate at the campus in a private letter.

But universities union UCU has revealed UCL bosses’ “passive approach” by publishing correspondence on the issue.

Migrant workers at Education City told ITUC investigators how agency bosses charged them huge recruitment fees, took away their passports, forced them to sign contract extensions and paid them less than first promised.

Cleaners, cooks and secretaries are paid less than £180 a month for 12 to 15-hour shifts, the ITUC letter showed.

But UCL’s human resources director Nigel Waugh brushed aside the evidence, saying that the university was not responsible as the workers were employed by sub-contractors.

Mr Waugh would only commit the university to raising the issues “with the relevant authorities as the opportunity to do so arrises.”

ITUC legal adviser Jeffrey Vogt said that “does not discharge UCL’s responsibilities” under international labour laws in a response to Mr Waugh.

And UCL is now under pressure from both lecturers and students to go further.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt made clear yesterday that “hiding behind sub-contractors is indefensible.”

She said: “Our universities have a duty to ensure that people working on their foreign campuses have access to the same rights as they would be afforded in the UK.

“UCL should be using its influence to end this type of modern-day slavery and challenge practices that risk curtailing important academic freedoms.”

UCL Students Union external affairs officer Omar Raii also labelled the university’s position “unacceptable.”

He told the Star: “If UCL says or does nothing, it is at the very least legitimising the practice of modern-day slavery in Qatar.

“UCL should do much more than it has done already.”