Thousands Return as Labour Market shrinks in Dubai

By Javid Hassan

Both the Central and state governments will have to put in place rehabilitation schemes to cope with the influx of construction workers who have lost their jobs in the Gulf in the wake of the current global economic crisis.

In Dubai, the Ministry of Labour has reported that they are receiving an unprecedented number of complaints everyday from thousands of workers who have been laid off. The complaints are said to have tripled since the beginning of November as companies there are serving notices—from a CEO earning more than 100,000 dirhams per month to a construction worker drawing a monthly salary of 700 dirhams. According to Gulf media reports, some of the workers, who were waiting in the queue to file their complaints, had not received their salaries for the past several months.

They are among the more than one million workers in the Gulf states and elsewhere who have been laid off this year, states Mrs. Faryal Humayun, Recruitment Consultant at www.aarknet.org, in an email sent to HNN. She points out that scouting for a new job this time around will need a different strategy compared to the conventional approach.

Faryal cites a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) of 633 employers who anticipate that 25% of their workers are likely to be laid off in the next 12 months, while 35% face grim prospects in future. Similarly, the Watson Wyatt report disclosed that 23% of the companies surveyed—representing 1.6 million employees—plan to retrench them over the next 12 months.

This will create a huge “jobs-wanted” marketplace in 2009, dictating the need for a fast and expeditious job-hunting approach. The key elements of this strategy require a “Quick Action” process, since “the more you wait the more competition you face.”

Job hunters, she points out, should attend all workshops, seminars and networking events that are organized by a majority of outplacement agencies. This will enable the candidates “to discover new challenges and advancements in your related industry.”

The SHRM consultant also advises prospective candidates to start building relationship with recruiters, since they know the pulse of the market and the trend of placements in the current context. Many recruitment agencies have launched job portals for accepting résumés, but approaching them directly will boost one’s chances of a successful placement. The applicant should also put his best foot forward through a referral from former colleagues, business associates and other members of his network.

Such a streamlined approach could yield the desired result as the employment market is getting squeezed by the day. At the lower end of the market spectrum, the construction sector will feel the heat with news streaming in of tens of thousands of workers, mostly Indians, facing the hatchet in the Gulf, as the tide of recession sweeps across the region.

A labour ministry official in Dubai, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the number of complaints he had handled was unprecedented during a span of ten years that he has been working for the ministry. “My desk is full of complaints,” he observed, pointing out that their workload had more than tripled since the crisis began.

For typists engaged in such works, business has never been so brisk as it is now. As much as 80 % of their work involves typing out complaints against the employers or filling in applications for labour card cancellations at Al-Jawhara typing center, located near the ministry.

The number of new labour card applications is reported to have dropped by more than 70 % and on some days they receive no such applications, except from some small or medium-sized companies.

Bigger establishments with a work force of more than 1,000 employees have their own internal typing systems for handling the transactions. Ministry officials point out that the cancellations and labour complaints started in October, beginning with workers in the real estate sector, where they had either been fired or were deprived of their legitimate dues.

According to another typing center, as many as 120 applications for labour card cancellations were registered in December alone. The same period saw another 152 applications for labour complaints that were submitted as against 48 applications for new labour cards.

As for complaints from senior executives, Khalid Abunaqera, from White Flag Typing Center, referred to a complaint received from the CEO of a real estate company who was earning 100,000 dirhams per month. His grievance was against his company which, he points out, had terminated his service unfairly without settling his end of service benefits. Khalid notes that it is the first time ever that they are handling such a complaint. They have received more than 30,000 written complaints from other senior officials as well.

Most of the complaints were from employees who had been retrenched and were not paid their dues by their employers in Dubai. Other complaints related to forced unpaid leave that put them to severe inconvenience. As part of rehabilitation programme, the Andhra Pradesh government should unveil its own economic stimulus package with its focus on infrastructural projects to create jobs and business opportunities in this sector for the benefit of workers returning from the Gulf.

The state faces a chronic water and power shortage, especially in the rural areas, where the population has to rely on well water. Treatment of wastewater and harnessing of river water could go a long way in stimulating the steel industry, as it will require installation of new pipelines as well as water treatment plants. This will address, to some extent, the problem of fluoridation associated with the drinking of well water and is the major cause of deformed teeth, dental cavities and tooth decays that are prevalent in the rural areas.

Other initiatives could be in the direction of road repair, construction of new roads and boosting power generation capacity, whether hydroelectric or thermal, to stimulate the rural economy.

The Karnataka government, through Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and similar agencies in other districts, has spent crores of rupees on tackling the problem of water shortage and contaminated well water. By initiating similar measures, the Andhra Pradesh government could not only solve these infrastructure problems to a great extent but also provide job opportunities for returnees from the Gulf.