Home > Slavery, corruption... Larsen & Toubro and Qatar have so much in common

Slavery, corruption... Larsen & Toubro and Qatar have so much in common

by Robert Scott - Open-Publishing - Thursday 12 November 2015

Mumbai-based and global construction company Larsen & Toubro is settling in Middle-East. The State of Qatar is giving them major construction sites and the two seem to share the most ‘essential humane values’ – blood bricks: building infrastructures at the cost of human lives, including children’s, corruption and harassment.

With the 2022 Soccer World Cup approaching, the State of Qatar and its public work authority Ashghal had to make friends within the construction field and what better friends than those who share the same ideals? Within the past two years, Indian-based engineering giant Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has been awarded the keys to major construction projects for infrastructure in the capital Doha (as IDRIS project) and in smaller cities of the emirate, by Ashghal.

However, anywhere else in the world, L&T is facing major difficulties. Last year, the company was ‘slapped with $20M sexual harassment suit’ in the court of New York City after Deepa Shanbhag, a worker for L&T infotech was fired following the announcement of her pregnancy. This incident revealed several other employees from different branches of L&T who had had similar cases. The class-action suit was filed on behalf of over 1,500 women employees of L&T past and present.

At the same time a junior engineer in India denounced the work environment at L&T, ‘one of the world’s most reputed company.’ Cheap politics, bad HR policies, compensation and gender inequality practices of L&T were brought to light and inspired many past and present workers to speak out and add to the conversation launched across Indian media. “I worked with L&T for 11 months and believe me after a month of orientation program, ‘how and when to resign’ was on top of my mind,” said L&T Junior Engineer Trainee, Prashant Srivastava (1).

Soon after, allegations were made that practices in L&T also greatly affected the quality of the work itself. Time pressures, safety problems and fake performance appraisals came into the picture. ‘No matter that the person who agreed to the deadlines had no actual idea how long something would take to manufacture’ according to ‘The inside story on Larsen & Toubro,’ the supposed people responsible for building India.’(2)

But the most shocking controversy with L&T is the revelations that the firm has been involved in the “blood bricks” scandal and may very well still be today. The blood bricks scandal was revealed by several NGOs and media showing the worst possible form of bonded child labor forced to produce bricks in India. Last year, the BBC reported that children as young as four were employed, many of them dying each year because of hazardous work, respiratory problems due to high levels of arsenic, burnt plastic and dust in the brick production sites. L&T was directly pointed as the responsible party, even from its Scottish partner working with them on the construction projects.

“Recently, Blood Bricks identified workers in bonded labour. The latter were said to have been working for a sub-contractor of an Indian company called Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which is itself a close partner of Scotland-based Howden Group, as they entered into a multimillion-euros joint venture five years ago. After identifying these workers, activists from Union Solidarity International wrote to the Howden Group alerting the firm to the allegations of its partner, which have been passed to the Indian Government’s Ministry of Labour. The response was completely inadequate as the Howden Group, despite being controlled by L&T, said that complaints should be addressed to L&T direct.” (3)

L&T’s human right violations and multiple law issues would soon impact the firm’s bottom line. In the first-quarter of 2015, the profits decreased 37 per cent and saw many states, countries and partners turning their backs on L&T. That is probably one of the main reasons why L&T is trying so hard to win contracts in the Middle-East and rebuild business. Qatar’s need for infrastructure is a great opportunity for L&T. With the clock ticking towards the world cup, it appears Qatar and Ashghal are turning a blind eye to L&T’s history, and instead appear trying to buy themselves a new image with the world cup.

Following Britain’s footprints, countries will increasingly force companies to stamp out slavery if they want to work. Qatar isn’t one of them just yet. How long will it be before the weight of the international community is enough to make the emirate nation change?

(1) Why do graduate engineering trainees get fed up of L&T?, Quora, August 20th 2014
(2) Article written anonymously because of repeated threats after the involved employee left L&T
(3) Blood Bricks campaign: companies that want to work in Britain must stamp out slavery, Andrew Brady, International Business Times, March 4th 2015

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