QATAR’S Lusail Real Estate and Development Company (LREDC) has reaffirmed it will not tolerate breaches of health and safety by the company.

It announced its stance following a meeting the company’s representatives had with officials of Qatar’s Ministry of Labour for a discussion of health and safety issues involving their developers, contractors and sub-contractors. Delegates from the Supreme Council of Health and Qatar Red Crescent were present.

LREDC has been tasked with delivering Lusail City as the ‘conscience of sustainable development’ and with setting new standards for community facilities and services. An extension to Doha, Lusail City is billed as a meticulously planned urban development unlike anything witnessed before. It is a project of the Qatari Diar Real Estate Company, which is wholly owned by the Qatar Investment Authority and was established to support   Qatar’s growing economy and to co-ordinate the country’s real estate development priorities

The LREDC meeting was part of the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Awareness Day.

At another event to mark the day, Salem Rashed Al Kuwari, Qatari Diar corporate HSE senior director, observed, “There are some companies who are doing a great job, and we reward them, but there other companies who are not paying their employees on time or taking care of their occupational health and safety. They should not be in business. I will not wait for the Ministry of Labour to intervene.”

He further emphasised: “We will not work with companies that do not take safety seriously, either locally or internationally. They are at risk of slowing our projects and tarnishing our reputation. I hope my message is clear. We will not tolerate bad performance.”

Qatari Diar is currently engaged in more than 49 signature projects in more than 29 countries around the world.

Over 200 hundred people from the construction industry attended the event and watched a series of presentations from industry experts on legal obligations, health hazards and best practice. Khaled Al Ghanem, inspection department director at the Ministry of Labour, and his colleague Hazem M Lashin, occupational safety and health expert, gave a presentation on the legal obligations of all developers, contractors and sub-contractors, covering such matters as working hours, wages and living conditions.

Sandy Hines, HSE supervisor at Parsons, the project management and construction management consultants for Lusail Developments, gave a detailed presentation of HSE standards required at Lusail and on other projects. He said, “Lusail is part of a larger vision, not just Fifa 2022 but the legacy of the Qatar National Vision 2030. We have a workforce of over 20,000 employees within Lusail and our policy is that we aspire to drive all incidences and all accidents down to a zero level. Lusail will not tolerate any HSE violations.”

Hines added: “Parsons will be initiating documentation based on aggressive observation, inspection and audit. We’re checking every project. What we expect from you as project managers, engineers, designers and so on is to leave today with an understanding that safety issues are for everyone –from the lowest level to senior management.”

Representatives from the Supreme Council of Health, including Dr Elmubasher Abu Baker Abdo, supervisor for diseases control and public health, delivered a presentation on the prevention of communicable diseases.