Labourers continue to be transported in non-AC buses
Another summer has arrived, but there is little respite in sight for a majority of construction workers who continue to sweat it out in buses without air conditioners.
Around three years ago, it was announced that airconditioned buses would be introduced to transport construction workers between their accommodation and worksite.
However, there has been no sign of such “labour-friendly” buses hitting the roads in large numbers until now.
Only a fraction of construction companies uses air-conditioned buses to ferry their workers during the summer, it is learnt.
“We rarely get enquiries for airconditioned buses from construction companies to transport their workers,” said the fleet manager of a firm that supplies buses to a number of companies.
The official said he has been in the business for more than 18 years, but has come across only a handful of companies that have asked for airconditioned buses.
He, however, could not say if any company was using its own airconditioned buses to transport its workforce.
Sources in the transportation industry said some construction companies where western expatriates were in key positions insisted on using airconditioned vehicles to ferry their workers.
“However, such instances are few and far between,” said a young expatriate managing a company supplying buses.
While there is a law in the country to protect workers from the heat through restrictions on outdoor activities during the summer, no such rule exists to ensure better travel conditions for labourers, say sources.
Sometimes workers have to travel in non-AC buses for an hour or more to reach their destination. Explaining their predicament, some workers of a construction firm complained that their managers had been using old buses - 10 years or more - that were not in very good condition.
“We have asked for better buses on many occasions, but our supervisers have always ignored our requests,” said a Nepalese worker.
Workers in some of the smaller companies are somewhat more fortunate in this regard, it is understood. This is because some of these companies, which have a relatively small workforce, use airconditioned mini vans for workers’ transportation.
A senior contracts manager of a major construction firm said the labour department - as part of the new reforms it is initiating - could consider making it mandatory for contractors to use only airconditioned buses for their labourers. “If such a law comes into effect, employers will deploy AC buses for their workers in no time.”
Meanwhile, some workers from Ras Laffan said they preferred travelling to Doha during weekends in the airconditioned Mowasalat buses even if it meant spending some money on fares.
“It is better than enduring the intolerable conditions in our companies’ non-AC buses,” said an expatriate.
Qatar Cares....about the World Cup. Take that away from them until the real-world, on-the-ground conditions for these workers have improved. At the moment they just show human rights officials the swanky new accommodations that have been built for workers who will never see them. So I guess that AC on busses is really quite a low priority.
the way these people are being treated will hit back on them someday. They don't care how the labor workers get to the site. The supervisors n bosses go in AC vehicles.
These people only thinks of how much money they can get... and they spread like viruses...
It's too funny to see an Assad regime supporter is talking about ignoring (( simple human rights )) ..... Fire777 is a good sample of Schizophrenia .
You work the whole day under the sun at 40+ Celsius and when going home you sit in an AC bus. what logic is this? Earlier one of the worker i knew told me that he preferred to sleep without AC in their room. It makes them sick when they are put through these extreme temperature variations. May be there is some logic as to why they don't have an AC in the buses. Any experts here?
hmmmmm.... am not gonna argue with you anymore fire777.... i think i know you! wahahahahaha!
The transportation these companies are providing to their workers itself is the best evidence how these companies are violating rights of workers , but still Qatar officials are playing victimization cards .
Someone Said " If God does not exist, everything is permitted " it seems true when I think about Qatar .They are proving it day by day .
LOL , Who would have thought that , Did you see anyone using ac couches to transport Camels ?
Labour officers useless in this country , they can't take any single action towards such companies , because the first one who are going to penalized for such inhuman activities will be themselves only .
IF you want catch such companies , it is easy , just open your eyes look around .
ooohhhh... thanks for the info khalli.... yeah, i don't read news... ;(
and to fire777 - we are talking about qatar here, and please don't put words into my mouth! I NEVER said they are not human! you're such a big mouth!!!
ohhhh Fubar so sorry.... I didn't get it at first.... ;(
Sorry zafirah. I forgot to put a sarcasm disclaimer on my post!
very heartless... cant imagine their sufferings..
fubar, this is qatarliving.com, and we are gonna talk about Qatar, Qataris, here...... why would we care about UAE and Saudi?
it's not always the Qatari partner, in our company, we transport our workers in our own air-conditioned buses... not because of Qataris', but because the other partner imposes it. and Qataris are just "willing partners"...
Can everyone just stop making racist comments about Qatar. What about the buses in UAE and Saudi. This is just jealousy from The West. Etc.
qatar must implement stringent rules to stop this.
pls do understand that instead of searching and finding illegal villa partition,try do some inspection in these type of transportation.
Its the job of the implementing agency to penalized these heartless company owners. Unless there is a concrete action against them, we will just continue to read reports like this in the future......until 2022.