N.Y.U. Promised Reforms in Abu Dhabi. Report Says It Has Reneged.
When investigators reported in 2015 that 10,000 migrant construction workers employed at New York University’s campus in Abu Dhabi had not been paid money they were owed, and were subject to substandard working conditions, the university vowed to reimburse the workers and provide regular updates on its compliance with labor standards. Three years later, thousands of workers may still be owed millions of dollars. And until this week, the university had not released a compliance report. Or so contends a report released Thursday by the Coalition for Fair Labor, a group of N.Y.U. faculty members and students that has long been critical of the Abu Dhabi project and its labor practices... But N.Y.U. strongly challenged the report, saying that it was “neither right nor fair” and that its title — “Forced Labor at N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi” — was “both incorrect and inflammatory... [W]e disagree with the report’s findings, which are not based on primary evidence”... When asked about the coalition’s findings, N.Y.U. immediately released its long-awaited compliance report, which it said had been scheduled for release in June. That report, prepared by Impactt Limited, an ethical-trade consultancy based in London, was based on interviews with more than 500 workers in Abu Dhabi. And overall, the... report found “a good level of compliance among contractors and a high level of satisfaction among workers”...