Are Gulf Arabs Up to the Job?
Originally published in Gulf Financial Insider
by Tariq Hussain
Many Gulf Arabs would agree with what is said in this article, but I preferred to have it published using one of my pen names, Tariq Hussain, rather than as a Westerner.
Are
the oil-rich Nationals of the Gulf lazy? Three influential Arabs from
widely differing backgrounds all answer with a resounding “yes”.
These unlikely allies are Bahraini Labour Minister Dr
Majeed al-Alawi, an anonymous Saudi
blogger living in self-imposed exile in London and Muslim scholar
Sheik Yousuf al-Qaradhawi, well-known for his Al Jazeera programme
Shariah and Life, co-founder of the website IslamOnline
and a leading influence in the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Bahrain's Labour Minister
described Gulf Arabs as “lazy” and “spoilt,” relying on
imported labour for the simplest of tasks. He added, “A lord with
billions in Great Britain cleans his own car on a Sunday morning,
whereas people of the Gulf look for someone to hand them a glass of
water from just a couple of metres away.”
The
Saudi blogger, who uses the pseudonym Alhamedi
Alanezi, stated in the Internet, “When
God created Saudi Arabia, he also presented us with three gifts: the
Holy Mosques at Mecca and Medina for our spiritual needs, and for our
material needs the oilfields and the Indian subcontinent, so that we
had people to sweep out the former and pump out the latter.” His
blog is known as The Religious Policeman, because, as he
states in it, he currently “lives in the United Kingdom, where the
religious police no longer trouble me for the moment.”
In
a Friday sermon on Qatar TV,
Sheik Yousuf said, “Our people can buy the most luxurious cars,
Rolls Royce or Mercedes 500 or 700, models S, M, and L with all the
luxuries. We own them, but we don’t manufacture them. We don’t
even produce a single screw in any of these cars. Others do this for
us.” He also stated, “We
are a nation that doesn’t work. How can we develop if we don’t
work? When we do work, we don’t do it professionally. We keep
saying, 'Don’t worry, later, later.”
If all these people are right,
then attempts across the Gulf to replace expatriate workers with
Nationals seem doomed to failure.
A
report in Saudi Arabia´s leading English-language newspaper
Arab News appears to support their pessimistic opinion. There
were six replies to an advert placed by a small Saudi business. The
owner of the business said that the first person sent copies of
certificates in a folder but with no covering letter or contact
number. The company eventually tracked the applicant down and asked
for a CV, but the applicant – a university graduate – didn't know
what a CV was, and when it was explained what was needed, couldn't be
bothered to prepare one.
Another applicant was offered an
interview by e-mail and a text message, but didn't reply. Applicant
number three was offered an interview on Thursday at midday but
replied, “Everyone is sleeping on Thursday at that time,” and
didn't turn up for a rescheduled interview. Number four emailed on
the day of an interview arranged a week previously, saying that the
office was too far from home, and mentioned family commitments making
it impossible to accept the job. The fifth cancelled an interview by
sending a text message 10 minutes before it was due to take place and
the sixth did turn up for an interview, but 45 minutes late.
While I am certainly not
suggesting that this is only a Saudi problem, I went to work in Saudi
Arabia when the government was attempting the Saudization of taxi
companies. “Don’t use a Saudi taxi driver,” my new boss warned
me by phone. But I couldn't find an Indian or Pakistani driver at
Yanbu Airport, so I had to take a taxi driven by a Saudi. He didn't
know the address of my apartment, even though it was in the city
centre, and we drove around for fifteen minutes until I went into an
Indian shop and asked for directions. The taxi driver then asked me
for more money because of the extra time that the journey had taken.
Last year the head of the taxi
committee of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, Abdul Hadi al-Qahtani,
commented, “The decision to 100 per cent Saudize the taxi sector,
which pays drivers a salary of 2,000 riyals, was made without
comprehending the outcome. A lot of companies have become bankrupt
because of this regulation.” The Kingdom's taxi regulations allow
Saudis to buy their own vehicles and work when they choose, rather
than have a full-time position with a company – an option not open
to expatriates. “Why would Saudis want to be committed to a company
and work full-time and have their attendance checked?” asked the
head of Jeddah´s taxi committee.
The
fruit and vegetable industry was another commercial sector targeted
for Saudization while I was in the country. In Al Khobar
Bangladeshis who had been employed at the market for more than a
decade were forced to give up their jobs to make way for Saudis.
Bangladeshi workers were driven out by repeated police raids to
enforce the new regulations, but the Saudis didn't want the jobs made
available.
“The
leaseholders of the stalls tried to hire Saudis but it wasn’t very
successful,” said the stall manager at the market, Hassan Saleh
Salman Arawiti. “Those Saudis had no experience in the produce
business and couldn’t work the long hours the business requires for
profitability. Most Saudis stayed just a week or two and they were
gone. The labour problems led to some stalls closing at that time.
At
nearby Dammam the market didn't suffer from Saudization to the extent
that Al Khobar's did, according to stallholder Abdullah Ahmed
al-Oubaid. “We never had the overwhelming dependence on expatriate
labour here in Dammam,” he said. “It’s true that Saudis don’t
work like expatriates.
Saudis have families and obligations and won’t work long hours. So
we have to hire at least two Saudis to replace each expatriate.”
At least two Saudis for each
expatriate! Of course some might say, with truth, that the real
problem is that virtually all of the Gulf has become used to being
dependent on expatriate workers who are prepared to put up with
working long hours for low wages for a fixed number of years to
support families back in their home countries. Gulf Nationals, on the
other hand, want time with their families, a social life and enough
money to enjoy both.
Saudization has been far from an
unqualified success. There are even reports of businesspeople
creating fake jobs existing only on paper in order to meet quotas
rather than actually employ Saudis. But the situation is little
different elsewhere in the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council – a
free-trade zone including six countries in the Gulf).
In Bahrain, the general manager of
one of kingdom’s best known companies told me of the constant
pressure he is under to hire Bahrainis, and yet he is rarely able to
find good workers. He recalled how he just a few weeks previously he
had received two CVs of Bahraini job seekers from the Labour Ministry
to consider. In good faith he employed both. On arriving for his
first day of work, the first said he expected a car. When informed
his job did not require a car and he would therefore not be getting
one, the new employee walked out. The other employee, a female,
arrived late on her first day due to “transportation problems”.
She then asked to be able to go to lunch early and for a driver to be
supplied to take her into work every morning. The manager offered to
collect her himself each day, but she resigned on her first day, or
rather she went off for her early lunch and didn’t return.
Such stories would be laughable if
they were not so common. It seems that most employers have their own
“horror stories” to tell. Of course there are many excellent GCC
Nationals equal to any expat, but many employers will candidly report
that they believe these are in a minority.
Another
employer, a well respected Bahraini businessperson, said
“the trouble with Bahrainization laws is their corrupting effect;
It makes it hard for good local staff to be loyal to their employer
when other companies are constantly trying to poach them, while
others believe they deserve to be employed because of their
nationality, regardless of their ability or aptitude”.Such comments put GCC governments in an unenvious position as
they struggle to both do the best for their citizens as well as to be
seen to do so.
There are, in fact, more than
enough jobs in Bahrain for every unemployed Bahraini. But most jobs
are universally rejected by Nationals for being too hard or
“demeaning”. Seemingly it is considered to be less demeaning to
be unemployed than do a hard job outdoors. Training Bahrainis for the
private sector is a government priority, but private sector wages
have risen very little despite Bahrain’s economic boom. In the
public sector, in contrast, wage increases have been substantial
while the rigours of the workplace are usually far less demanding
than in the private sector. At the Labour Ministry’s careers fair,
held last month, over four thousand jobs were on offer from forty
five local companies, enough jobs for nearly half the total number of
Bahrainis registered as unemployed according to Labour Ministry
figures. Sadly and yet not surprisingly there were few takers. The
picture is similar all over the Gulf.
To
be fair, there are success stories. “Saudization is something we’re
very proud of,” said Mohammed A. Hammad, a Saudi Aramco project
manager in the Ghawar oilfield in the Eastern Province. “We are
very proud to see young Saudis taking charge, both in Saudi Aramco
and among our contractors,” he added“One of the gas treatment chemical
storage tanks was completed by Saudi welders, inspected by a Saudi
inspector, and they have a Saudi engineer. It is a small example of
what Saudis can do if given the right chance and the right support.”
While it is good to hear such
stories, the GCC is never going to rid itself of its dependence on
foreign workers. So why worry? Everyone in the Gulf who doesn't live
with his or her head buried deep in the desert sands knows that some
GCC Nationals are lazy and are a hindrance to doing business rather
than a help. It didn't need the World Economic Forum Global
Competitiveness Report to reveal this fact, because it was never a
secret.
