Recommendations

To the Tourism Development and Investment Company of Abu Dhabi:

Ensure that all contractors and subcontractors on TDIC worksites:

• Immediately return all confiscated passports to workers and cease this illegal practice.
• Identify and cease working with any labor supply agencies in labor-sending countries or the UAE that engage in deception regarding contracts; inquire from each worker upon arrival whether they have paid any recruiting or visa fees or travel costs to any labor supply agency and reimburse workers for any such fees or costs.
• Translate and explain UAE contracts into workers' native languages and give workers a meaningful opportunity to review their contracts before signing them, and provide workers with copies of contracts.
• Pay their workers promptly upon starting work, and regularly thereafter, including by complying with UAE legal requirements to set up and pay into workers' bank accounts.
• Provide adequate healthcare to all workers as required by law, including opportunities to seek medical advice and treatment from medical staff not employed by the companies, and inform workers of their rights.
• Provide guarantees that they will respect workers' rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, by including in their contracts with TDIC, by amendment if necessary, provisions that ban employer interference in union activity; ban employer conduct designed to impede or prevent non-citizens from exercising their right to organize; require employers to grant representatives of workers' organizations access to non-work areas of project property during non-work time; require employers to pledge neutrality on union formation; and require employers to engage in good-faith collective bargaining with workplace or sector-wide unions or labor federations or confederations over terms and conditions of employment.
• Establish, in close consultation with workers, conciliation and mediation proceedings that lead, in the event of deadlock, to binding arbitration with sufficient guarantees of impartiality and rapidity to resolve labor conflicts, as recommended by the ILO Committee of Experts.

Additionally, TDIC should:

• Penalize and terminate relationships with any contractors that continue to work with labor agencies or sub-agencies that charge workers fees and/ or mislead workers regarding conditions of employment upon arrival in the UAE;
• Ensure that workers have access to governmental grievance mechanisms, including access to the appropriate office of the Ministry of Labor, and that workers are clearly instructed about their right to file complaints without fear of reprisal.  
• Ensure that workers are informed of their rights under UAE law, including to overtime rates, minimum numbers of days off and to holidays, and to extra compensation.
• Investigate cases where contractors are requiring laborers to work for periods prohibited by law or without adequate overtime or compensatory pay, and ensure workers are compensated and companies penalized.
• Regularly collect and make public data on the number and kinds of occupational injuries and accidents on its worksites.

To the Government of France, Agence France-Muséums, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and New York University:

• Publicly pledge that all development partners, contractors, subcontractors and their affiliates involved in the construction of the Abu Dhabi branch of each respective institution will not engage in abusive labor practices, including withholding employee passports and wages, as "security," and doing business with recruiting agents who charge employees work-related fees for their employment. Make public the guarantees and protections you have sought and obtained to protect the rights of workers in the UAE, to reassure the domestic and international public that your project will not be tainted by the prevalent practices of migrant worker abuse.
• Insist that TDIC agrees to obtain contractual commitments from all of the contractors and subcontractors involved in the project to respect the rights of foreign workers' rights under UAE and international law, including a promise to allow workers to retain their passports, reimburse workers for any fees paid in the recruitment process, prompt payment of salaries, and public reporting of deaths and injuries on the worksite.
• Obtain representations from TDIC that it will respect workers' rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, by including in their contracts with TDIC, by amendment if necessary, provisions that ban employer interference in union activity; ban employer conduct designed to impede or prevent non-citizens from exercising their right to organize; require employers to grant representatives of workers' organizations access to non-work areas of project property during non-work time; require employers to pledge neutrality on union formation; and require employers to engage in good-faith collective bargaining with workplace or sector-wide unions or labor federations or confederations over terms and conditions of employment.
• In light of interpretations of UAE law whereby striking is prohibited, obtain representations from TDIC that it will ensure that all project-related employers establish, in close consultation with workers, conciliation and mediation proceedings that lead, in the event of deadlock, to binding arbitration with sufficient guarantees of impartiality and rapidity to resolve labor conflicts, as recommended by the ILO Committee of Experts.
• Establish, as an integral part of relations with the Abu Dhabi branches of your institution, a mechanism to monitor labor practices within the operations of the new branch as well as those of any subcontractors and their affiliates (including those who provide construction and maintenance services). This monitoring mechanism should oversee how migrant workers are hired and treated during their employment with your Abu Dhabi branches and its subcontractors and affiliates. The committee should make sure that all managers within the Abu Dhabi branch's operations, as well as subcontractors, are specifically trained and informed of a zero-tolerance policy on "customary" labor abuses.
• Take concrete steps to create mechanisms that would encourage compliance by your subcontractors (i.e. retain experienced and reputable labor and construction lawyers and give them a mandate to ensure that all construction and maintenance related contracts entered into by the Abu Dhabi branch of your institution require meaningful compliance with labor laws).
• Urge the UAE government to establish immediately a comprehensive database, accessible to the public but respecting patients' privacy rights, reporting on the cases of injured workers treated at UAE hospitals in connection with the construction and operation of your institutions. This database should include information on the nationality of the workers, the nature of the injuries, whether or not they are work-related, the medical diagnosis, and the employer's role in covering related healthcare costs in each case.

To Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Foster and Partners, Gehry Partners LLP, Rafael Vinoly Architects PC, Tadao Ando Architects and Associates, and Zaha Hadid Architects:

• Publicly pledge that you have obtained guarantees from your development partner that contractors, subcontractors and their affiliates involved in the construction of the Abu Dhabi branch of the institution you are designing will not engage in abusive labor practices, including withholding employee passports and wages, as "security," and doing business with recruiting agents who charge employers work-related fees for their employment; make public the guarantees and protections you have sought and obtained to protect the rights of workers in the UAE, to reassure the domestic and international public that your project will not be tainted by the prevalent practices of migrant worker abuse.

To construction and other companies employing migrant workers engaged in work on Saadiyat Island, including Arabtec, al-Habtoor, al-Jaber, Leighton, Saif bin Darwish, Ed. Zueblin AG and Abu Dhabi National Hotels / Compass:

• Make public any guarantees and protections you have given or sought and obtained from your subcontractors to protect the rights of workers in the UAE, to reassure the domestic and international public that you will not be involved in the prevalent practices of migrant worker abuse.
• Publicly pledge that you or your subcontractors and their affiliates involved in construction in Abu Dhabi will undertake the first seven steps described in the recommendations to TDIC with regard to its contractors.
• Penalize and terminate relationships with any labor agencies or sub-agencies that charge workers fees and/ or mislead workers regarding conditions of employment upon arrival in the UAE.
• Ensure that workers have access to governmental grievance mechanisms, including access to the appropriate office of the Ministry of Labor, and that workers are clearly instructed about their right to file complaints without fear of reprisal.  
• Ensure that workers are informed of their rights under UAE law, including to overtime rates, minimum numbers of days off and to holidays, and to extra compensation.
• Consider joining the UN Global Compact and implementing measures to ensure your work conforms to the human rights and labor law based "principles" contained therein.

To the Government of the UAE:

• Establish an independent commission to investigate and publicly report on the situation of migrant workers in the country.
• Prohibit companies from doing business with recruitment agencies, in the UAE and abroad, that charge workers fees for travel, visas, employment contracts, or anything else. Prosecute and implement significant penalties for employers and recruiting agencies that violate the law.
• Aggressively investigate and prosecute employers who violate other provisions of UAE law, including employers who confiscate workers' passports or fail to pay all costs associated with recruiting agents, and amend UAE labor laws to explicitly protect the right of all workers to hold their own passports and other identity documents.
• Amend labor laws to stipulate that employment contracts be entered into and legally enforceable in both Arabic and in a language that the worker understands and speaks fluently; stipulate that instructions issued to workers from government agencies or employers also be available in both Arabic and the worker's language.
• Impose meaningful and consequential penalties on companies that violate workers' rights, to put an end to the present atmosphere of impunity.
• Increase substantially the number of inspectors responsible for overseeing the private sector's treatment of migrant construction workers. Ensure that they carry out their duties to inspect construction sites and worker accommodations to verify that they are safe and meet the requirements of law.
• Take immediate action to inform and educate migrant construction workers arriving for employment in the UAE of their rights under UAE law.
• Abide by the obligation under the UAE labor law of 1980 to implement a minimum wage and cost of living index.
• Allow for the establishment of genuine and independent human rights and workers' rights organizations.
• Amend UAE labor law to guarantee workers' right to strike, including by establishing explicit procedures for workers to exercise this right, such as strike voting requirements and strike notification rules; and to provide for binding arbitration in cases of collective labor disputes only upon workers' request and only in very limited circumstances.
• Ratify the International Labour Organization's Conventions No. 87 and No. 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and amend UAE labor law to incorporate the conventions' protections. The law should provide for the formation of independent unions free from employer and government interference, and explicitly require that upon request of a workers' organization, an employer and the representative labor organization bargain in good faith over terms and conditions of employment, including wages and hours, to reach a collective agreement.
• Ratify the International Labour Organization's Convention No. 155 on occupational safety and health, and establish immediately a comprehensive database to provide quantitative and qualitative data on labor disputes, deaths and injuries at construction sites, and government actions to address these issues.
• Ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.