Dive Brief:
- Workers on Russia's 2018 World Cup Zenit soccer arena in St. Petersburg are complaining of a lack of pay as well as poor work conditions and inconsistent safety standards, the Guardian reported.
- As a result, 50 workers have threatened to sue two subcontractors for 14m roubles, or around $215,000, in back pay.
- The Zenit arena has become one of the most expensive sports venues in the world, surpassing predicted costs and reaching a price tag of more than $1 billion.
Dive Insight:
The general contractor on the project, Transstroy, said all of its employees have received pay on time and that the job site meets all safety requirements. Transstroy, however, uses several subcontractors to build a significant portion of the venue, and employees for those subcontractors could be facing different working conditions.
Initially projected to open 2009, the Zenit stadium has been hit with several waves of delays, corruption allegations and cost overruns. It is now set to open in May 2016. At least five men have died working on the arena since 2011, according to The Guardian.
Workers' rights have become a major issue for construction of FIFA World Cup venues.
In July, after corruption allegations rocked the soccer federation, the head of a Qatari government inquiry into alleged abuses told Congress "there is a lot more" American construction companies building 2022 World Cup infrastructure in Qatar could do to ensure that their subcontractors do not mistreat migrant laborers. More than 1,200 construction workers reportedly have died during the building of soccer stadiums in Qatar, although officials of the wealthy country have denied that the fatalities are due to construction accidents.
And work delays are nothing new for World Cup arenas, either. Several stadiums built for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil opened just in time for the summer event, and some seating areas were unfinished when the games began.
