New York University has acknowledged that procedures meant to protect workers during construction of its new campus in Shanghai were not followed.

The revelation comes in the midst of a review of the treatment of workers during the earlier construction of its Abu Dhabi campus and the announcement by unionized graduate students on Dec. 2 that they are prepared to strike if stalled contract negotiations do not move forward.

Results of a retroactive review of working conditions at the Shanghai site are expected by the end of the year.

A consulting firm hired by NYU in March 2012 to provide an array of services during construction was supposed to produce annual reports on working conditions but failed to do so.

Concern that workers at the Shanghai site may have been abused stems from a New York Times investigation of conditions during construction of the Abu Dhabi campus, which found that workers had been beaten or arrested for striking, were housed in squalid and cramped apartments, had been charged high fees to obtain their jobs, were forced to work overtime and were not paid what they had been promised.

The New York Times, Dec. 1
In These Times, Dec. 2