Why we mustn't forget Delhi 2010

The dust from Delhi's PR disaster has settled now, and the international media has turned to other matters.

But while journalists may have moved on, it's important we don't forget what went so horribly wrong.

The Commonwealth Games - or rather the ‘Common Woes' games, as many locals dubbed it - provided a steady stream of the worst kind of headlines in the run up to the Games, all perfect fodder for scandal-hungry news networks.

They included the collapse of a bridge outside the main stadium, injuring 27 workers; allegations of corruption; and images of scruffy, barefoot children hauling hammers and buckets of earth to help prepare sites for the start of the games.

Campaigners claim that contractors ignored health and safety standards, saying that over 100 workers died during the construction of facilities, either from accidents or from illnesses resulting from abysmal living conditions.

Building Workers International (BWI) say that workers only received 200 rupees (Dh15.8) for eight hours of work and overtime, less than the minimum wage for skilled workers in Delhi of 248 rupees.

There were reports of a surge of child trafficking, with young girls allegedly being lured to Delhi for work at the Games, only to be sold into prostitution.

It might be easy to feel complacent about all this, and to assume that the scandals that dogged the Games exist only in less developed countries.

But although it's not likely that young children will be involved in the construction of London 2012 facilities, child trafficking is very much alive and kicking in our capital. And a high proportion of the people building our state-of-the art velodrome, the stadium, swimming pools and running tracks are agency workers, many of them migrants, who are often at particular risk of abuse.

And don't forget the hundreds of thousands of workers around the world who will be involved in producing athletes' uniforms, sportswear and footwear, equipment and official Olympics promotional merchandise. All of these people, as poor, low- and semi-skilled workers, are also vulnerable to exploitation.

Delivering a legacy for London was at the heart of our government's successful Olympic bid. This legacy should extend to protecting the rights of all the people involved in bringing it to fruition, from people constructing sports facilities through to those assembling official Olympics pens, mousemats and key fobs, right through to those who mine and process metals for the medals and produce cut flowers for the prize winners' bouquets.

Playfair 2012, part of the international Play Fair campaign, is coordinated by the Trades Union Congress and Labour Behind the Label and supported by over 20 unions and campaigning organisations. We have supported it to challenge the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to live up to its promise of creating an ethical legacy for the London Olympics.

The campaign has three key asks for LOCOG:

1. Contracts between the London organisers and sponsors of the Games, and suppliers of Olympic goods must include obligations to meet internationally recognised labour standards.

2. Factory supplier locations and audit results be disclosed.

3. If workers' rights are violated, there should be a procedure which enables workers to make a complaint and for this to be dealt with. This should involve trade unions and local labour rights organisations.

Throughout the year, the campaign has sought to engage with LOCOG on these issues, while ETI has also played a part in helping the organiser's staff understand the importance of a continuous improvement approach to improving labour standards and the dangers of relying on ‘tick-box' audits.

One big battle has been won. In July this year LOCOG announced that it will develop a complaints mechanism for workers.

This is the first time in the Olympic history that the workers involved in the production of Olympics will have a way of complaining about their pay and conditions. It has now appointed two consulting companies to develop the mechanism, who have already started consulting a wide range of stakeholders on what form it should take.

The devil will, of course, be in the detail, and Playfair 2012 continues to seek further information from LOCOG about how it will respond to its other key asks, including supply chain transparency, worker education and the involvement of trade unions and local labour rights organisations.

Let's not forget the lessons that Delhi has taught us. We'd do so at the peril of all the workers involved in our big event, not to mention all those to come, including Brazil 2014 and 2016, Russia 2018 - and beyond.

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Playfair 2012