COP28 site workers risk “serious heat injury” claims human rights group investigation

Human rights group FairSquare is calling on the organisers of this year’s COP28 to open an official investigation into the reasons why migrant construction workers preparing conference facilities for the climate change summit next month were labouring in “extreme heat that posed very serious threats to their health.”

The call comes as FairSquare this week published the results of its investigation into construction work practices at Expo City in Dubai which is due to host the high-profile conference in November, claiming that construction workers on site were required to breach the country’s summer working hours laws on two separate days in early September.

Fairsquare researchers said that they had photographic evidence and testimonies that approximately a dozen men were working outdoors on three Expo sites between 12.30 and 3pm, in contravention of UAE labour laws, moving large heavy items and working on scaffolds in harnesses.

Workers at an unrelated construction site in the UAE comply with the midday ban in August 2023. Photo: Rula Rouhana/ Reuters

Fairsquare said it interviewed 10 workers who were required to labour outside during the midday ban.

“Of course I get headaches and feel dizzy. Everyone in this heat does,” one man told Fairsquare. “This weather isn’t for humans I think.”

James Lynch the report’s main author and co-director of Fairsquare said that summertime working bans, which are implemented across the Gulf region, are not able to adequately protect construction workers from extreme heat.

“The UAE authorities should adopt a risk based, rather than a calendar-based, approach to limit workers’ exposure to heat,” he said. “Specifically, the UAE should pass legislation to ensure that employers are required to provide workers with breaks of an appropriate duration, in cooled, shaded areas, when there is an occupational risk of heat stress. Mandatory break times should take into account the environmental heat stress risks along with the exertional nature of the work being performed.”

COP28 told FairSquare in a written statement that based on the information shared with it, it was “not aware of any breaches of Summer Working Hours on the site of this year’s Conference”. It said that Expo City and COP28 had “robust worker welfare policies and procedures”.