Financial Times

Alarm over foreign labour
The employment of foreigners in our corporate sector has become an important issue that is generating some debate. The level of debate over the matter and the emotions involved are an indication of the seriousness of the problem.

This has been highlighted by no less a person than the Sri Lankan CEO of the local unit of the US multinational Caltex. If anyone is qualified to speak on this issue it is Kishu Gomes, by virtue of his position as Managing Director/CEO of Caltex Lubricants Lanka.

He has made the interesting point that previously employment of expatriates by local firms was confined to the top jobs - the likes of CEOs and finance directors. Today, however, there is some alarm over what is seen as an influx of expatriate executives, with many of them being perceived as doing jobs that could easily be done by Sri Lankans themselves and for which there are plenty of qualified and competent locals. Expatriate employees can now be found not only in the higher echelons of corporate Colombo but lower down the rungs as well, or right across all segments of employment, down to the masons, carpenters and hospital workers.

A good example is the one of Indian hospitals being set up here and elsewhere in the region that employ Indians not only as surgeons and nurses but even at lower levels. Most often expatriate executives are able to lead lifestyles and live in the kind of luxury here that they could only dream about in their own countries.

Of course, it is the prerogative of the individual companies and organisations concerned to decide whom they should hire - whether local and expat. And it is also the individual companies that pay the exorbitant salaries that such expatriate executives invariably command.

There also seems to be some justification to hire foreign workers in certain categories such as nursing or masonry for which there seems to be a shortage of skilled labour here. It could be that such a shortage exists because our skilled labour is migrating abroad in search of greener pastures. For example, nurses get their training here and then migrate to Western countries which find it convenient to employ skilled labour from poor countries because of shortages in their own countries and because they can pay lower wages.

But there seems to be a contradiction here - while our masons and nurses seek foreign employment we are importing foreign masons and nurses to fill the shortage. Furthermore, these companies should be mindful of local sentiment and also of the foreign exchange drain that takes place by their employing foreign executives and other workers.

For some one like Gomes to raise this issue in public shows how serious it has become and its potential to become a big economic issue. An audit of the foreign nationals working here has been suggested in order to better understand and manage the situation. An important point that has been raised is that while we like to crow about how much foreign exchange is earned by our migrant workers, mostly poorly-educated housemaids doing menial work for rich Arabs in the Middle East, there does not seem to be an effective way to find out how much money is being drained out in the same manner by foreigners coming and working here. This is particularly the case with senior positions as such executives don't come cheap.

The justification for such appointments was that such individuals have impressive skills and qualifications which have to be compensated at international rates. But the counter argument was that locals with similar skills were available here.

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