Qatar: 550 employees of construction giant Imperial Trading & Contracting protest over unpaid wages; cos. did not respond
In October 2020, NGO Migrant Rights reported on the case of 550 employees of Imperial Trading and Contracting Co. (ITCC) who have been protesting non-payment of wages for over 11 months - 450 workers allegedly have not been paid for nine months, and 100 staff for nearly a year.
In total the workers are owed about US$357,000 and US$250,000 in final settlements. Migrant Rights report that while the Qatari govt set up a Workers Support Insurance Fund in 2018 to pay workers in such cases without delay, the process has not been used.
Protests have been held more than once and in June 2019 police allegedly advised workers not to return to work until they were paid; workers then received six months of pay over the following two months.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited ITCC and its parent group SASCO to respond to the allegations; neither company responded.