Conversation With Al Bloom On The Workers Exempted From Labor Standards
In the wake of investigations revealing the exclusion of one third of Saadiyat campus’ construction workforce from university labor guidelines, NYU Abu ...
Apr 25, 2015
In the wake of investigations revealing the exclusion of one third of Saadiyat campus’ construction workforce from university labor guidelines, NYU Abu Dhabi’s Vice Chancellor Al Bloom is emphasizing optimism. The entrance to his office, flanked by tall wooden sculptures of an alphabet flexing into Arabic and beyond, has seen a stream of visitors all week.
Before my interview with Bloom, a group filters out of his office, including members of the Office of Compliance and Risk Management and Public Relations. As I take a seat on the couch, Bloom pours coffee out of a tall, elegant dallah and asks about my week.
Last week, after the release of Nardello & Co.’s report, Bloom held two Town Halls for faculty and students, respectively. He described them as opportunities to express pride in accomplishment as well as disappointment. For Bloom, NYU has failed to enforce its labor standards, but it has also made unprecedented strides in setting standards and meeting them for at least 65 percent of workers. Coupling the positive with the negative, Bloom’s is an especially optimistic voice among a grave community. Different students have lately expressed shock, disappointment and outrage that NYU let about 10,000 workers slip through its standards for labor.
This phase, according to Bloom, is for discussing how to go forward. NYU has committed to compensating employees on the construction of the Saadiyat Campus to bring them into line with labor standards. Looking ahead, Bloom said that NYU as an institution will “show resolve to create a better world.”
THE GAZELLE: DID THE FINDINGS OF NARDELLO & CO. COME TO YOU AS A SURPRISE, MAINLY THE FINDING THAT 35 PERCENT OF WORKERS WERE NOT COVERED BY THE LABOR GUIDELINES?
Bloom: I was saddened by the fact that we did not meet the full range of our expectations. I think the report was a very accurate and comprehensive reflection of unprecedented achievement in partnering with a government in defining labor standards for a project and in setting in place a compliance process to make sure that those standards were respected.I think the Nardello report gave a fair representation, and not a surprising representation, of the major success we’ve had in those areas. It also gave a fair, and surprising, representation of the areas in which we did not live up to our expectations, particularly because of loopholes in the infrastructure of the contracts governing compliance.
WHAT WAS NYU’S GREATEST ERROR?
The most serious error by those who formulated the contracts governing compliance was to exempt those under 30 days or under a million dollars, out of the erroneous belief that exempting those contracts would not have a significant effect on reaching our goals.HOW DID NYU MISS SUCH A LARGE NUMBER OF EXEMPTIONS?
I really don’t know. I came to NYUAD after those original plans were already in place. I didn’t even hear of any exemptions until relatively recently but I think one major reason for the omission is that those formulating the contracts were convinced at the time there would be no way to complete the project without exempting companies, the reason being, for example, if you hire a company for 30 days to hang up pictures and bulletin boards, it is highly unlikely that they are going to undertake a total restructuring in the way their workers are accommodated or in their salary scale for just that task.At the time, as well, I believe there was a sense that exempting small contracts — in terms of both duration and money — would not seriously impact our ability to reach our overall goals. Clearly that presumption was not correct. The good part is we understand that now and we have learned how to ensure going into the next project that we do not accept this kind of exemption.
We also should remember that we don’t know how many work-hours of people were affected. It’s true that 35 percent of workers were not covered by compliance, but they were all in small contracts [in terms of time spent on site or value]. So these 35 percent may easily represent closer to 20 percent, or maybe 15 percent, of the [total] hours worked. I’m not excusing what we did wrong, but it is true that we’re learning a lot about how we can go forward more successfully.
WHAT ARE THE NEXT CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS FOR NYUAD?
We’re not sure what construction will be next, but we are talking particularly about growing the space for science experimentation, because it’s insufficient right now, and creating space for executive education, but these are still very preliminary discussions.We need to be prepared by the time we get to [future construction] with the mechanisms to make sure we don’t make mistakes again. That’s most important.
HOW WILL NYU UNDERTAKE THE DIFFICULT TASK OF REPAYING EXEMPTED WORKERS?
We will seek the help of a firm that has real experience in this kind of analysis to try to ascertain, as closely as possible, the number of hours worked and the discrepancy between what the workers would have made if they were under the compliance regime as compared to if they weren’t.WHEN WILL NYUAD HIRE A NEW COMPLIANCE MONITOR?
Within a matter of two weeks we should be able to announce the new monitor, and monitoring will begin.HOW CAN NYUAD AS A COMMUNITY RESPOND TO THE OUTRAGE OR DISAPPOINTMENT SURROUNDING THESE LABOR STANDARDS VIOLATIONS?
NYUAD, together with our partners, should be very proud that we initiated an unprecedented approach to setting labor standards for the work that our university would do; labor standards that would in many cases advance the implementation of laws already on the books and in others offer more generous minimums than the laws prescribe particularly in the area of accommodations and in salary; labor standards that offered significant benefit to at least 20,000 workers.Ours is an example that others can follow and then come to expect. I think the NYU community and the government should be extremely proud of what has been accomplished.
The fact that our approach was not perfect, that a large number of workers were left out, is very sad and very disturbing, for we wanted to extend the benefits to everybody who worked on our campus. That we will be compensating the workers who were not covered makes the effort all the more one of integrity and positive contribution.
It’s an amazingly complicated system that provides millions of workers opportunities to make a better living, to send money home and to support their own countries and their host country. It is a system that, therefore, has potentially major advantages. The issue is how do you work with it to make sure that those advantages are not counterbalanced by loopholes and by lapses in enforcement. We should be proud of ourselves for working on this issue and not take criticism from the press as evidence of lack of commitment, sincerity or of accomplishment. Our accomplishment outweighs, in my mind, the fact there were shortcomings in what we achieved.
HOW DO YOU THINK THESE LABOR STANDARD VIOLATIONS WILL AFFECT THE REPUTATION OF THE SCHOOL AND STUDENTS EARNING DIPLOMAS AT NYUAD?
I think this is a wonderful opportunity to display the importance to this institution of seeking a better world, which doesn’t mean that you get that better world overnight.If you accomplish the amount that we accomplished and learn from what we didn’t accomplish, you go on to accomplish more. Over time, this commitment and follow-through on it will add tremendously to the reputation of the school, as one not only dedicated to intellectual excellence but [also] motivated by ethical resolve and ready to offer a model for how an institution can advance that better world.
To look at what we have accomplished as a failure I believe is very wrong: what other institution of higher education has partnered with a government to improve labor standards?
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE CRITICISMS FROM NYU STUDENTS IN NEW YORK?
I think it would be wonderful to create a meaningful conversation with those who criticize us on how much we share in commitment to creating a better world and on the complexities involved in making good on that commitment.All must take into account how significant the opportunities the system offers to these workers, how many workers want to participate, how many workers want to stay when they’re here, how many workers want to come back. But then we have to figure out what we can do to help improve the system. Part of that process will be the research project we are planning focused on the soliciting of recruitment fees outside the UAE.
We have to turn the dialogue from a controversy between NYUAD and NYU into a joint dialogue about how to improve systems of labor migration around the globe.
Joey Bui is editor-in-chief. Email her at feedback@gzl.me.
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