Is / are / should IOSH be doing anything with regards the H&S of infrastructure workers / contractors who are involved in QATAR 2022 construction? We are all aware thanks to the media of the terrible conditions and appaling death rate of the workforce.... This is an open question. Not politically motivated or anything else, just a question provoked by watching the news this morning.

I think they do their bit by being inclusive to safety practitioners from Qatar and who improve standards of H&S in Qatar. Ultimately the low standards are the responsibility of their government and also of those who award high profile competitions to such governments. Regards

This is pasted from the IOSH International development section: We work with IOSH members and other health and safety organisations across the globe to keep people safe and healthy in all areas of their work. We have membership networks in the Caribbean, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Ireland, Qatar, Oman, Singapore and UAE in addition to our UK networks.

IOSH could make representations to the Qatar government to encourage them to improve H&S standards, but the impression I get is Qatar is starting out on the road towards good H&S standards. Legislation itself is potentially an issue, along with the enforcement of said legislation. And once the legislation is in place, it takes time for it to take effect and protect workers. (Honestly don't know the format/content/state of Qatar legislation!) Taking the UK as a comparison, we have good legislation, we have fairly good enforcement, but there are still people dying in workplace accidents and there is still work to do with encouraging employers that spending money on H&S is always going to be preferrabe for the reasons Mr Kurdziel mentions (MEL), rather than spending money on the inevitable accident. Progress on these matters is painfully slow, as changing any culture can be. Look at the countries still mining asbestos, and using it industrially. One day they will possibly be where we are, when it comes to banning it.

Different country, different culture. I don't agree with the exploitation or harm of anyone in the world, but there is a need to be pragmatic and accept that here in Blighty there is not much anyone can do. The Arab world (and other places) is fraught with human rights issues - persecution, intolerance, injustice... I would rather IOSH focus on the things they CAN do, which as a rule is here in the UK. Apart from soundbites I don't see a lot happening.

I just saw this over the weekend. This is as big as genocide: http://m.mic.com/article...&utm_campaign=social With over a 1000 dead already and an estimated 4000 deaths, this is as big as a genocide incident. I would very much like IOSH to be more vocal on this as BBC News does not seem to be giving this any attention at the moment. They seem to find FIFA bribery and corruption charges far more interesting to report on.

Issues are every where, Every country and in Every Industry.. But Targeting Qatar is not fair always.. Qatar have the best health and safety legislations as peter says similar to UK, HSE Department with Ministry of Labour do the enforcement... I am working in Qatar for last years and I never faced a situation as what it mentions in the media... They must also see many positive part of Qatar rather first. The Health and Safety initiatives, Environmental initiatives etc. IOSH Qatar is a very active branch, Where I am also a member. I will refer the forum topic to IOSH Qatar Executive committee for further details I am not sure the link is accessible for non branch members http://www.iosh.co.uk/~/...t%2015%2020131.pdf?la=en

Phil, I am pleased you put this post up but I find the responses on the whole rather depressing. I used to think that H&S professionals would tend to be altruistic types with higher than average levels of empathy and a concern for the greater good, but this thread seems to indicate a lot of indifference and a sort of natationalistic jobsworth don't get involved mentality. Over a 1000 dead already and an estimated 3000 more to go. How can people be so relaxed about such an atrocity?

The question is how we (as a society not just IOSH) should be dealing with this issue. In theory, like most countries Qatar has a comprehensive set of H&S laws (which comply with ILO standards) but ( like mist countries perhaps) they apply the laws in an unfair way; blaming the foreign work force for any failings and leaving local managers etc to get away scot free. In an ideal world we would have nothing to do with such a state but unfortunately we rely on the oil and gas that they produce and so we have to work with them. The best we can do is to apply pressure through organisations like IOSH to get them to mend their ways. Some people have smelled a way to make to a fast buck (yes Sepp I am talking about you) and decided not only to trade with them but to award them a prestigious tournament which they can use to exonerate their policies. Anyone who has followed the more responsible media (ie not the Daily mail and its ilk) will know that Qatar has been run by a nasty family based dictatorship for years, which has used its oil wealth to suppress all political opposition at home. They have also spent money on maintaining an excellent welfare state for those people that toe the line. They have also given aid to developing countries and have expected those countries to support them in their endeavours such staging the world cup. Hopefully if the corruption surrounding the bids comes to light FIFA might decide to scrap the plans to hold the world cup in Qatar but this would be a costly move. Qatar would demand huge amounts of compensation, it might even split football’s governing body with the Africa and Asia supporting Qatar and Europe and possible Latin America setting up their own competition. At the same time the poor buggers on the ground will lose out. Having been exploited they will all be sacked and sent home pronto and the Qatari government and it’s paid apologists will point the finger at the west and blame it’s racism and its unwillingness to give the new countries share of things like the world cup. Overall bad place to be in and one I can guess IOSH is nervous about getting involved in.

It appears that the Qatari government have made a statement to the effect that the Washington Post distorted the statisctics and presumed that all deaths of migrants in Qatar have been FIFA related. Not sure if link works: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk...022-construction-1504248

As Buzz says it's difficult to know what to believe. That said there are a lot of deaths in Qatari construction irrespective of what the contract is for. That's what IOSH, as an international safety brand, should be concerned about. The football issue just shows how dodgy everything seems to be when there's lots a money sloshing around. Graham

These figures were subject to some scrutiny on Radio 4 yesterday afternoon and the result was sceptical of the ITUC claims which are at the heart of these figures. They involve many assumptions and hypothetical analysis of death figures for ALL migrant workers in Qatar NOT just construction caused fatalities. They also include all migrant deaths for whatever cause including non work related illnesses. The programme also identified that the death rate for young males, who constitute the migrant workers, is 4 times higher in their countries of origin than in Qatar. There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Be aware of the agendas of all authors

I have had a quick dig around to try and understand the figures being quoted, and it looks like pretty disgraceful reporting. It appears that the 1,000 fatalities being quoted is for all migrant deaths with no attempt to match this to deaths at work (let alone World Cup construction). Given that there are about 2 million migrants in Qatar, this number starts to look a bit different. I have not found a very reliable figure for normal mortality rates for working age people, but 1 per 1,000 per year (0.1%) seems to be about right. This would suggest that 2,000 migrants would be expected to die in Qatar per year. Given that the 1,000 World Cup deaths is since 2010, this figure actually seems to be very low. As others have said, you do wonder what the motivation has been to mislead so blatantly. I would be very happy for someone to publish the figures that prove my estimates wrong. But this is based on what I could find with a quick Google of what I thought was relevant data.

Whichever way cut it 1,000 deaths from construction equates to a 1,000 deaths. As is often commented on this forum, one death is too many, so what does 1,000 add up to?

Ray AndyBz neatly highlights the problem with these figures. The 1000 deaths is not about construction accidents for the world cup or for construction deaths - It is a fabricated figure developed from ALL migrant deaths from ALL causes. Back home 4 times the number of people of the migrant workers age peers would have died in the same period from ALL causes including work related and other non work related causes of death. It is essential when reading ANYTHING to evaluate any particular biases of the authors. Things are not always as they seem. Perhaps we also need to look at some of the other safety hobby horses that are about. Are the authors figures/statements fully accurate or hiding some dialectical ideas that have a barest shred of reality?

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is an international umbrella organisation that represents 176 million workers through 328 affiliated organisations within 162 countries and territories, including the UK’s TUC. It is the largest such organisation in the world.

Buzz According to the Qatar Government response: "To be clear: there have been no fatalities on World Cup projects in Qatar." Source: www.eurosport.co.uk/foot...n_sto4768320/story.shtml Apparently many of the hundreds of migrants highlighted in the ITUC report had heart attacks which were not related to the high temperatures, heat stress or poor conditions in which they were working. How could anyone think such conditions would affect the workers' health? No doubt the 'bonded' construction workers are happy in their work or maybe just happy to have a job. Apparently there was no corruption or bribery involved at all in securing the 2022 World Cup either. Cheers. Nigel

So difficult to know for sure without undercover investigative journalism in the Qatar stadium.

I'm surprised at how little criticism has been leveled at the real problem ie The recalcitrant standards, policies and performance of the various employers. Having worked in the Gulf states, albeit a few years ago, I well recollect the lack of concern shown by the organisation I was contracted to provide an investigation for. [On working in high temperatures in August!] Conditions for the company employees were great, air conditioned with full catering services and low work stresses. However, once out of the buildings [blast proof too] life was very different for the migrant workers, who worked in all weather conditions with little protection, low pay and poor accommodation, etc. The record of heat stress illnesses reported to me by the company showed little harm arising [to employees] but enquiring from some medical centres this was shown to be somewhat 'economical with the actualite'. Yes, there was a big problem but it was the migrant workers suffering. As is often the case in the oil industry contractors are invisible. And of course some of the deaths were heat stress related together with those from construction activities I agree with the recommendations in the Guardian recently-that the companies involved in this debacle should be precluded from receiving government contracts in their home countries unless they can show a spotless safety performance [I would also take the Guardian's estimation of significant numbers of those harmed before many others]. And we , IOSH that is should be doing far more with the companies concerned and their OHS staff. Ray, I reckon we can do lots more for both our own and those overseas: this is the 6th Richest country in the world [just the distribution is a little wonky-technical economic term] Regards Mike