Locals 'held back' by Qatar's sponsorship sys
Qatar’s sponsorship law is not providing enough incentives for nationals to find employment, according to the director general of the General Secretariat for Development Planning (GSDP).
Sheikh Hamad bin Jaber Al Thani, told a labour market strategy forum on Monday that the current system was hindering the nation’s development.
He said there were not enough incentives for Qataris to learn new skills to be able to compete in the local job market, reported The Peninsula.
He said the current sponsorship law system meant employers tended to recruit foreigners with sub-standard skills on lower salaries.
“This is not good for the national economy. These workers are less productive over the long term,” he said.
But, he added: “We can’t completely replace the expatriate workforce with locals due to the shortage of national workforce.”
He advised that a stronger emphasis be put vocational education for nationals.
In May Bahrain announced that it would introduce a new labour law that allows foreign workers to switch jobs without the consent of the employers. The change is due to come into effect in August.
qatar is going to follow dubai/bahrain soon,
no authentisity, just heard.
mar_oba,
It happens in Oman so Qatar should perhaps consider the same fate, when oil and gas reaches Omani's levels.
I just can't imagine if one day you'll see a Qatari running and serving you shawarma and juice outside the restaurant. Can you?
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"Pride proceeds the fall"
thanks!
Check out this link
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/558959
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&month=June2009&file=Local_News2009061621837.xml
Source - The Peninsula
Motherhood...The hardest job you'll ever love! : )
Saudi went through the same phase. The bottom line is that employers have got used to making large profits off the back of Expats. They can pay an expat lower salary and demand longer working hours. This will not be possible for a local..
Example from Saudi:
Indian travel agent paid 2,000 SR per month and working 66 hours per week.
Local travel agent, paid 4,200 SR per month (as per government directions) and working 44 hours per week.
And thats a big problem.
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I think you have me confused with someone who gives a sh1t.
"sub-standard skills" and "less productive"
well if there was a decent minimum wage...and decent training then they could attract better quality workers
pay for what you get....
yeah source please... i cannot imagine locals doing manual labour, so i guess they just meant, office jobs, the administrative jobs and the like or maybe even higher ones..
I think the problem with his view is that he is putting the burden entirely on to the prospective national employee, and ignoring the contribution that employers are making to the problem.
It is employers who chose to hire the sub-standard foreigners in preference to nationals ultimately.
No matter how motivated the national is, s/he still has to find an employer, and employers would rather hire ex-pats, hence our presence.
There are other things that provide incentives not to enter the workforce, such as government largesse. I don't see any complaints in this article about that.
Deleted...double post
Motherhood...The hardest job you'll ever love! : )
jobs, which is the same problem here.Although, you are starting to see more and more Bahrainis doing waiter type jobs,security etc
The mindset has to change first before anything will happen.
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I think you have me confused with someone who gives a sh1t.
Shallow analysis of the problem, done by limited experienced and educated officials, perhaps?
PS. who wrote this and where was it published?
And what kind of jobs is he talking about? Qatari's are never going to do manual labor, or work in the supermarkets. So he must be talking about the office jobs. Isn't that the reason they came up with "Qatarization"?
Motherhood...The hardest job you'll ever love! : )
Yes, it's a confusing statement from someone who seems quite confused about what the actual problem is. Re-reading it again, he's actually insulting both ex-pats and nationals.
You forgot the end of that sentence too, Tallg:
He said the current sponsorship law system meant employers tended to recruit foreigners with sub-standard skills *on lower salaries*.
So on the one hand he's saying that the nationals lack skills ("not enough incentives for Qataris to learn new skills ") and then he says that foreigners are cheaper anyway.
So is it the sponsorship system that is stopping nationals from engaging in certain work activities, or their often outrageous salary demands?
"sub-standard skills" and "less productive"
Wow, way to insult the entire ex-pat work force.
If only there was a larger population of Qataris to replace them all with. He seems to think that would solve everything.