Financial Times

Of labour shortages and exports
The euphoria surrounding the agreement stuck with Malaysia for 50,000 employment opportunities for Sri Lankan workers appears to have masked the deeper reality of the nature of our unemployment crisis and could end up creating more problems than it solves.

The agreement, under which there are opportunities for the export of 50,000 workers, mainly to work on Malaysia's extensive plantations and also possibly in construction, has been touted as one being able to make significant inroads into the unemployment problem and helping to raise the incomes of the poorer sections.

The reality of the situation, as was pointed out by our economic analyst in last week's issue of this newspaper, is that Malaysia's economic success has transformed the country into a full employment economy while Sri Lanka, despite massive unemployment, faces serious worker shortages in key sectors of the economy.

Malaysia today is forced to import labour and has become dependent on immigrant labour to a significant extent for its rubber and oil palm plantations that have a big share of the world market. Malaysia's rise up the scale of economic development and its emergence as a newly industrialised country has led to a shortage of its own countrymen to work for low wages on its oil palm and rubber plantations, which need low wage labour from poorer countries in the region to remain competitive.

Although we do have a serious unemployment problem a more careful analysis of the situation reveals that there are actually shortages in certain areas, one being the vital plantations industry. Even several paddy producing districts face seasonal labour shortages.

Plantations have been reporting difficulties in retaining labour and high rates of absenteeism. Low grown tea estates have long faced labour shortages and the shortages are now spreading to mid-grown and high grown estates. Absenteeism is also affecting plantations with workers who live on the estates preferring to find more lucrative employment in neighbouring villages or private estates.

The existing shortages of pluckers and tappers on our own tea, rubber and coconut plantations, has come about because today's youth are not taking to the jobs their parents did as they prefer alternatives and also because of the perceived low social status of such work.

The industry has mooted the idea of giving formal training to these categories of workers, uniforms, and even changing their designations to raise their image. Estate labour is no longer the captive work force they used to be. They have better alternatives and the Malaysian opportunity could be another one.

This worker shortage, coupled with the alarming exodus of experienced planters, as we report in this section today, could create a damaging vacuum. Although there is yet no significant damage, apart from the disruption caused and the cost of finding and training replacements, this could pose problems in future and destabilise the plantation economy.

The problem could get worse given the looming possibility of the 'pull' factors operating even more energetically in future when the billions of dollars pledged in aid start flowing and reconstruction projects start being implemented in the north and east.

This could create demand for project managers that could entice planters who would be ideal for such work given their multi-skilled nature and ability to handle a huge logistical effort. It could also draw workers away from the estates - the hardy Indian Tamil labourers could easily adapt to the environment of reconstruction in the north and east. Both planters and workers have the added advantage of knowing the Tamil language.

The export of labour which could be drawn from our agriculture sector, which itself is facing labour shortages, might not be the best option and might even make the existing labour shortages worse.

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