The World Cup is over, Qatar is back to normal. Dramatic relationships of company employees

It will soon be two months since the final of the Championship, from which the Argentines returned to their homeland with gold medals around their necks, and the photos of the delighted Leo Messi with the cup went around the world. The World Cup, where the Moroccans, who in their homeland received state decorations from the king himself, presented themselves very well. The party from which with the Golden Boot Some of the security personnel employed at the World Cup by Stark Security Services and Festival Global Management also wanted to return home with more mundane prey. Full pay for your work.

400 strikers in Doha and arrests. The companies did not want to pay their debts

At one point, it was a group of up to a thousand people. These employees for but also the matches themselves, e.g. those played at stadium 974, where she played m. Poland. More or less such a group did not want to leave the quarters-barracks provided by the employer, demanding payment of due wages and bonuses for overtime. The conflict began to escalate even during the championship itself. After the group phase, some of the employees were offered new contracts, which were very unfavorable. Firstly, they covered only one thousand rials a month (PLN 1,220) instead of the previously adopted 2,700, secondly, the documents bound them with a longer contract, which provided for only 21 days of vacation and a free economy class ticket to their home country only after two years of work. Why were some people offered new contracts then? Probably the companies were afraid that there would be an outflow of employees soon, and in June this year in Qatar the Asian Football Cup was planned. This is an event that will once again generate huge demand for cheap labour, mainly in the security industry. Anyway, the new contracts, first reported by The Telegraph, included a condition that workers “would not join any competitor” if they left their existing contracts. If Qatar has been loudly announcing in recent years that it is introducing worker-friendly reforms of the kafala system and officially abolished it on paper before the World Cup, practice shows otherwise.

This was the first time around 125 guards refused to work at FIFA’s main media center. On December 5, however, the world was more focused on Brazil’s match in the 1/8 finals of the event or waiting for the match of the Spaniards. The event went unnoticed. Another critical moment was the end of the championship, when some employees were running out of contracts, and the next ones, who had signed contracts until February, found out that they could also be packing. However, no one wanted to pay them the money contained in the contracts, so suddenly they were behind by three months’ salary. Besides, the other workers did not get what they were entitled to as part of their December paychecks, not to mention allowances. The Telegraph reported that some of the deceived emigrants went so far as to hire a solicitor to have their case heard by a Qatari court. Nothing came of it, and workers’ frustration grew. The more that since January, employers have stopped providing food to some employees and ordered them to leave their quarters. Some of them announced that they would leave them after a thorough settlement and settlement of due bonuses. In mid-January, the emigrants organized a strike in front of the headquarters of Stark Security Services. There were about 400 people presenting their demands. The police were called to the scene, the removal of people disturbing the Qatari peace and arrests began. Some of the workers were given the opportunity to take their belongings and were informed about the initiation of the deportation procedure.

“It was a pleasure to work and be part of this company”

The JosimarFootball portal, which spoke to two citizens of one of the West African countries, told us more about the fate of some workers recently. One is 18 (named Paul) and the other is 17 (named David). Well, these two were first accommodated in Al Shahaniya, and then Stark Security moved them to Barwa Al Bahara. There, a certain Abdullah in charge of the administration made deductions from their promised salaries and threatened with deportation if they did not accept it. The teenagers and their friends stopped getting food on January 1. Then, instead of talking about the final settlement, a statement was given to sign.

“I have cleared all amounts due to Festival Global Management and Stark Security Services and will be removing my belongings from and moving out of my current accommodation today. It has been a pleasure working and being part of this company.” 1,700 Qatari riyals were proposed for the statement. One group of workers agreed to sign the forms, accepted a small compensation and moved out of the camp.

Paul and David did not agree to this, they had invested all their savings in going to Qatar, so they felt cheated. On January 23, they were ordered to leave their quarters at Barwa Al Bahara. With a few personal belongings and a mattress, they took to the streets. It rained overnight and it got cold. They spent three nights on the street. Paul told Josimar that Stark Security owed him and a colleague 8,100 riyals and bonuses after a year of service. That’s why he decided to ask for his money and not sign anything. According to his knowledge, the amount owed by this company to employees must run into millions of riyals. “Only God knows how much we suffer here,” he told reporters, noting that he was aware that his case was not the first and not the last.

– Filing a complaint against Stark Security will automatically mean our deportation. We don’t stand a chance against such a large company. We also have no voice, because the locals see us as foreigners brought for construction. We just want others to know what the immigrants are going through here. The locals see us Africans as inferior beings. It’s not just about pay, it’s also about history. We’re slaves to them,” Paul said.

The Telegraph estimated that 100 of the 1,000 people involved in post-World Cup protests and fights for their wages were still in the Barwa Al Baraha camp at the end of January. The next football event, the 2023 Asian Cup, will start in Qatar on June 16 and will last a month. Qatar, which will defend the title, will host teams and fans from 23 countries during this time. The tournament will last a month.