Working with construction contractors on labour rights in Georgia
Our South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion project will transport gas from Azerbaijan to markets in Europe. In Georgia alone, around 5,000 people helped to construct three facilities and a pipeline, with around 10% of the workforce originating from other countries such as India and Thailand
We assessed the labour rights practices of our construction contractors and certain sub-contractors.
We found no instances of forced labour, but we identified some labour rights concerns, such as not having documents in the workers’ native languages.
The assessment reinforced the importance of:
- clear contract clauses on employee relations and labour rights
- a monthly on-site labour management forum so workers can share concerns or ask questions
- regular reviews of employee terms and conditions, welfare and grievances by experienced employee relations professionals within the contractor organizations.
We are sharing what we learned from this assessment with our businesses around the world.
It was essential for us to work closely with the contractors as they employ the majority of the workforce. The strong support we had from all parties, including contractors, sub-contractors and the workforce, was key to conducting the review.
Kelly Goddard,environmental and social manager, South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion project, BP