Migrant workers "building the first stadium for Qatar's 2022 World Cup have been earning as little as" 45p ($0.76) an hour, according to Booth & Pattisson of the London GUARDIAN. The pay rate "appears to be in breach of the tournament organisers' own worker welfare rules" and comes despite the Gulf kingdom spending £134B ($226B) on infrastructure ahead of the competition. More than 100 workers from some of the world's poorest countries are laboring in "ferocious desert heat on the 40,000-seat al-Wakrah stadium, which has been designed by the British architect Zaha Hadid and is due to host a quarter-final." Hadid, "whose practice is likely to earn a multimillion-pound fee on the project," said in a joint statement with fellow design firm Aecom that they were "working closely with our clients to ensure that any outstanding issues are resolved." The pay rates were described as "poverty wages" by Labour MP Jim Sheridan, "a member of the Commons culture committee investigating the World Cup bid." Sheridan: "This is not what football, the people's game, is all about. It is about fairness and that includes for the workers." Stadium workers said that their passports were being held by their manager, "in apparent breach of the World Cup organisers' own worker welfare standards." Pay slips for workers on al-Wakrah stadium suggest that "the contractor is breaching rules on overtime pay and working hours limits set by Qatar's World Cup organising committee" (GUARDIAN, 7/29).
