Carrefour and its franchisee Majid Al Futtaim singled out by Amnesty over working conditions in Saudi Arabia

“In Carrefour stores, workers are not treated like humans”: the NGO Amnesty denounced in a report contested by the French giant the conditions of migrant workers on several sites in Saudi Arabia, managed by its major Dubai franchisee Majid Al Futtaim.

More than 60 hours of weekly work “in violation” of Saudi laws, unpaid overtime, suspicions of “forced labor” during a day off… Amnesty International, which denounced the working conditions at the end of 2023 in the Saudi warehouses of the American giant Amazon, this time investigated the stores and warehouses under the Carrefour brand in the kingdom.

In its report published Monday, the NGO cites in particular a former employee in a warehouse, named Anand, who assures that “in Carrefour stores, workers are not treated like human beings”. The bosses “all the time say ‘Come on, go’. They grab our T-shirts to make us work quickly,” he says.

She interviewed a total of 17 workers from Nepal, India and Pakistan, employed by subcontractors including Al-Mutairi and Basmah, to work at sites in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. The management of these sites is ensured by the historic franchisee (since 1995) of Carrefour in the Middle East, Majid Al Futtaim (MAF).

– “Corrective actions” –

Amnesty concludes that the latter and Carrefour “contributed to and benefited from human rights abuses, by resorting to the outsourcing of migrant labor without having put in place adequate controls (‘adequate due diligence’)”, and without having ensured that their subcontractors “respect human rights”.

Carrefour told AFP on Friday that it had “asked (its) partner MAF to conduct internal surveys among its employees and subcontractors in Saudi Arabia” following an exchange with Amnesty in mid-2024.

“These first investigations did not confirm the elements designated by Amnesty’s alert but revealed other problems: housing, training or monitoring of working hours for which corrective actions were carried out,” assures the distributor.

It also indicates that an independent expert has been “missioned” to investigate “all the requirements relating to human rights”. “We are currently establishing the terms of his audit with him.”

The NGO notes that the two companies have already made commitments in this area. In its financial documentation, Carrefour says it aims “to respect human rights throughout its value chain”, failings which could “strongly impact the group’s reputation”.

For his part, Majid Al Futtaim underlines, in his latest CSR report, his “commitment to respecting the highest standards in terms of human rights and working conditions”.

– “Serious failings” –

The Dubai-based company manages nearly 500 Carrefour-branded stores in 30 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. In 2023, it achieved 34.5 billion dirhams (AED) in turnover (8.6 billion euros) and 2.7 billion AED in net profit (674 million euros), according to its documentation. financial. Saudi Arabia is, in terms of turnover, its largest market outside its home United Arab Emirates.

Amnesty urges them to review their internal procedures regarding migrant workers to help them “effectively and quickly” in the event of abuse.

Contacted by AFP, the Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Amnesty report.

The NGO denounced in October 2023 the “abominable” treatment of migrant workers in Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia. Last February, the company announced that it had refunded $1.9 million to more than 700 contract workers in Saudi Arabia who were subject to illegal recruitment fees and other abuses.

“The scale and seriousness of the violations committed in Carrefour’s franchise operations in Saudi Arabia are deeply worrying,” reacted to AFP Mathias Bolton, head of the trade section of the international union federation UNI Global Union. He mentions “serious failings in its surveillance and its capacity to guarantee respect for fundamental human rights conventions”.

Do you have a real estate project in mind? Yakeey & Médias24 help you make it happen!