Labor Welfare Program for Megaprojects

Write a research proposal on Risk Management focusing on the Qatar – FIFA 2022 Word Cup.

Title: Labor Welfare Program for Megaprojects

Aim:

Following the international and national labor laws conflict that ensued since Qatar was awarded the host country for FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar was forced to make changes to its controversial Kafala labor laws. One such reform involved employers losing the power to deny exit permits to its migrant workers. However, these changes do not apply to the ‘domestic workers’ in Qatar, who, according to an Amnesty International research (2014), were found to be more vulnerable to human rights violations. The ‘FIFA World Cup’ qualifies as a ‘megaproject’ (Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management, 2016). The first aim of this study is to design a labor welfare program specific to megaprojects, wherein the scope of ‘labor’ includes both – domestic and migrant – workforce involved in the megaproject construction.

The second aim of this study is to assess the scope of a labor welfare program in effecting sustainable social development through megaprojects. The methods adopted by this labor welfare program will be inclusive of, but not limited to the approaches to ‘sustainable social development’ laid out by United Nations (2014). While the scope of the welfare program is limited to the labor workforce, its assessment and results are expected to cut across the organisation, industry, stakeholders, employees, and the national policies.

Literature Review:

This study will draw upon the concept of ‘worker welfare’ lying at the intersection of business and human rights, as established by Sarath K. Ganji (2018) in ‘Leveraging the World Cup’, and study its four process-specific policy proposals for Qatar to capitalise on FIFA World Cup.

The study will test the scope of a labor welfare program across the four drivers – technological, political, economic, aesthetic – that attract policymakers to megaprojects, as noted by Bent Flyvbjerg (2017) in the ‘Introduction: The Iron Law of Megaproject Management’.

UN lays out three domains of sustainable development – environmental, economic, and social – in the ‘Prototype Global Sustainable Development Report’ (2014). However, in a recent study titled ‘Urban Sustainability in Theory and Practice: Circles of Sustainability’, Paul James (2015) suggests that all domains of sustainability are ‘social’. In this context, the research aims to study the myriad approaches to sustainable development, select best practices, and propose an integrated labor welfare program.

The study also aims to draw upon the findings of the World Bank’s Social Protection and Labor Strategy 2012-2022, ‘Resilience, Equity and Opportunity’, which was aimed to tackle the operational issues presented by Social Risk Management (SRM) theories.

Methodology:

In quantitative methods, due to the absence of any software tools specific to labor welfare, this study is specifically interested in testing frameworks and outcomes under a mathematical conceptualisation wherein ‘labor welfare’ is a variable designated as the ‘asset’ to calculate single-loss expectancy in a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) software.

In lieu of the critique of traditional research paradigms by Pernecky (2016), this study aims to adopt a post-paradigmatic methodology for qualitative research. In this context, the research will draw upon a transformative paradigm (Mertens, 2009) combining several research designs.

Under qualitative research, theories of megaproject management, risk management, safety engineering, and common approaches to sustainable social development – social equity, health, social capital and support, human and labor rights, social responsibility and justice, cultural competence, human adaptation, place-making and community development – will be studied.

Qualitative data collection methods include interviews, focus groups, field notes, audio and video recordings, official and historical documents, websites and social media. The source of data for interviews includes, but is not limited to event organisers, policymakers, stakeholders, employees, laborers, bureaucrats, labor ministry, and the sports ministry. The study will select a sample size of 200 for designing and testing a pilot labor welfare program.

References

Amnesty International (2014). Qatar: ‘My sleep is my break’: Exploitation of migrant domestic workers in Qatar.

Brookes, Naomi J.; Locatelli, Giorgio (2015-10-01). Power plants as megaprojects: Using empirics to shape policy, planning, and construction management. 36: 57–66. Utilities Policy.

FIFA (2022). Bid Evaluation Report: Qatar. Retrieved from https://img.fifa.com

Flyvbjerg, Bent. (2016). ‘Introduction: The Iron Law of Megaproject Management’. The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management.

Flyvbjerg, Bent; Bruzelius, Nils; & Rothengatter, Werner (2003). Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition. Cambridge University Press.

Ganji, Sarath K. (August 8, 2018). Leveraging the World Cup: Mega Sporting Events, Human Rights Risk, and Worker Welfare Reform in Qatar. 4(4). Journal on Migration and Human Security.

James, Paul; with Magee, Liam; Scerri, Andy; Steger, Manfred B. (2015). Urban Sustainability in Theory and Practice: Circles of Sustainability. London: Routledge.

Mertens, Donna M. (2007). Transformative Paradigm: Mixed Methods and Social Justice. 1(3) Journal of Mixed Methods Research.

Misra S.N. (2014). Labour & Industrial Laws. 27th Edition. Central Law Publications, Allahabad.

Pernecky, Tomas (2016). Epistemology and Metaphysics for Qualitative Research. Research Methods. SAGE Publications.

United Nations (2014). Prototype Global Sustainable Development Report. New York: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development.