Doha, Qatar – The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), a leading onshore financial and business center in the region, has partnered with the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Qatar to organize a roundtable on promoting decent labor standards in the supply chain.
The roundtable featured speakers from the ILO and QFC who discussed various aspects of the procurement process and highlighted the importance of implementing standard checklists to verify supplier alignment with required labor standards, as well as the best practices and valuable insight on how to create a good and fair working environment in the supply chain.
Speaking about the event, senior QFC official Luigia Ingianni said that promoting decent work for all is one of the core values of the QFC.
“By sharing success stories of how the QFC has mainstreamed decent labor standards in the supply chain, we provide tangible examples that other companies from different industries can emulate,” Ingianni said. “The feedback of the roundtable participants emphasises the need to establish a common set of standards for due diligence in procurement processes.”
Max Tunon, Head of the ILO-Qatar Project Office, said it was encouraging that the QFC and several QFC companies recognize the importance of conducting due diligence in their procurement processes.
“By valuing decent working conditions in the award of contracts to suppliers, and monitoring these conditions, companies can help to raise standards among workers who may be more susceptible to labor rights abuses, including security guards, cleaners and others,” Tunon said. “We believe that this is an important complimentary function to the Governments responsibility in enforcing labor laws.”
The ILO-Qatar is cooperating with the Ministry of Labor and other partners in Qatar to enhance the implementation of the labor law across industries in the country.