October 23 – FIFA has announced a collaboration with Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) to promote “safe working conditions” across the football landscape for the next five years.
The world governing body and BWI build on the work done around the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, formilising their partnership in an official capacity.
The five-year agreement “sets out a framework for joint inspections, training and reporting to promote decent and safe working conditions for all workers involved in the construction and renovation of stadiums and other infrastructure linked to FIFA tournaments,” FIFA said.
The agreement rests on four key pillars: coordinated labour inspections at stadiums and FIFA tournament worksites; training programmes for workers’ representatives; mechanisms to ensure “corrective action and remedy” through a time-bound action plan; and the publication of annual progress reports overseen by FIFA’s Human Rights and Sustainability Sub-Committee.
BWI has previously criticised FIFA for awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, a country with a controversial human rights and labour rights record. The union has filed a complaint with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) against Saudi Arabia over the abuse of migrant workers.
In a statement, FIFA’s Secretary General Mattias Grafström said: “Like Building and Wood Workers’ International, FIFA takes workers’ rights very seriously. It is essential that all workers involved in projects connected to FIFA tournaments enjoy good working conditions, a fair income, safety in the workplace, social protection and integration.
“We want to ensure that everyone benefits when a country hosts a FIFA tournament, and that includes those who build the infrastructure.”
“This agreement builds on years of experience,” added Ambet Yuson, the General Secretary of BWI. “It provides a clear process not only to monitor but also to prevent and remedy abuses, ensuring that commitments to human rights translate into concrete improvements for workers.”
Following the tournament, FIFA ignored a report adopted by its own Human Rights and Sustainability Sub-Committee that recommended compensation for migrant workers in Qatar and their families who had suffered human rights abuses. At the Milken Conference, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that migrant workers “gain pride from hard work.”
The new agreement between the union and FIFA raises a panoply of questions, but above all, how BWI will independently hold Saudi Arabia and, by extension, FIFA to account over labour abuses in the run-up to the 2034 World Cup.
In 2014 the trade union also filed a joint complaint with the ILO over labour abuses in Qatar and related to the 2022 World Cup infrastructure build. That complaint was dropped three years later as the Gulf nation promised to reform.
FIFA and BWI worked together around the 2022 World Cup, the first global finals in the Middle East, which were overshadowed by the abuse and deaths of migrant workers who helped build seven new venues and transform Qatar’s infrastructure ahead of the tournament.
BWI has been contacted for additional comment.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at [email protected]