Will Pinoy workers be affected by ‘Saudization’ campaign?

Philippine – Advocates of “Saudization” are again pushing for a cap on the hiring of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, the biggest employer of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Abdul Rahman Al-Qahtani, leader of the “Saudi Arabia is only for Saudis” campaign, told Arab News that the Labor Ministry should strictly enforce Article 3 of the Labor Law, which states that employment is the right of every Saudi national.

He reminded employers that under the “Saudization program” local companies should only hire expatriates in “rare specializations” that could not be filled by Saudis themselves. “The new move will help reduce the number of foreign workers in the market and create more job opportunities for Saudis,” Al-Qahtani told Jeddah-based newspaper Arab News.

Al-Qahtani insisted that local companies should, by law, provide training to Saudis to make them more employable aside from pegging their minimum salaries to SR3,000 (US$800). He also said that Saudi workers must get annual vacation leaves and health insurance coverage for themselves and their family members.

The Saudization advocate clarified that the campaign was not meant to make light of the contributions of foreign workers to the Saudi economy, but rather to enable qualified Saudis get employment in jobs currently occupied by foreigners.

‘No cause for alarm’

Consul Romulo Victor Israel of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh said the campaign would barely make a dent on the Filipino migrant community that enjoyed employment in jobs deemed too menial even by Saudi nationals.

“There is no reason to raise the alarm among Filipinos. Despite the Saudization program, many still prefer Filipinos,” Israel told GMANews.TV by phone. Wikipedia placed Saudi Arabia’s population at about 27 million in mid-2006. It said that of an estimated 8 million foreigners, 950,000 were Filipinos.

Saudization was first carried out in 2002, starting with foreigners who accounted for 90 percent of the kingdom’s taxi cab drivers. Security guards and cashiers followed and so with many professional and blue collar jobs.

Even then, the hiring of Filipino workers has increased and the Philippine government estimates that the number of Filipinos in Saudi Arabia for this year is now 1.3 million, affirming the kingdom’s distinction as the biggest employer of Filipino workers, who are mostly employed in the construction, health care and household service sectors.

Because of the apparent failure of the Saudization program to make any dent, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for planning and development Mufrij Al-Haqabani, was reported by Arab News as saying that the government is reviewing its recruitment policy.

Filling the gap

Emmanuel Geslani, a noted manpower deployment specialist in the Philippines, agreed with Israel that there is not need to be alarmed since Saudi Arabia would still depend largely on migrant workers to sustain its economy since only a few Saudi nationals qualify for jobs that are already held by foreigners.

“The ‘Saudi Arabia is only for Saudis’ call is good,” Geslani said, “but can they fill the gap?” He said Filipinos have little to fear since few are employed in managerial posts that are eyed heavily by Saudi nationals. He even called Filipino expatriates in top posts as the “dwindling breed” because most of them have been booted out in the past because of the Saudization program. “For now Filipinos have found a niche in the service sector,” Geslani said. But even Saudi nationals themselves admit that life without Filipinos in the kingdom would spell doom.

We could die a slow death if [Filipinos] chose to leave us – Arab journalist Abdulla Al-Maghlooth In an article entitled, “Imagine a world without Filipinos,” Arab journalist Abdulla Al-Maghlooth said Saudi employers depend so much on overseas Filipino workers (OFW) that living without them would be difficult.

“If Filipinos decided one day to stop working or go on strike for any reason, who would transport oil, food and heavy equipment across the world? We can only imagine the disaster that would happen,” Al-Maglooth wrote. 

Nothing new

The Saudization of labor has been implemented in the oil-rich kingdom for years but has recently been revived in the early ‘90s with the surge of unemployment among locals. Dr. Robert Looney, who wrote a study on the impacts of Saudization said other Gulf countries have adopted a similar campaign: Kuwaitization, Emiratization, Omanization and Qatarization.

The program, Looney explained was focused on three main goals : 1. Increase employment for Saudi nationals across all sectors of the domestic economy; 2. Reduce and reverse over-reliance on foreign workers; and 3. Recapture and reinvest income which otherwise would have flowed overseas as remittances to foreign worker home countries.

Looney wrote that while the intention of the Saudization program was good, it might spook investors, particularly in the financing sector, who feel that their global competitiveness would be reduced with the reduction of expatriate workers.

“Many bankers spoke out that Saudization of all banking jobs would likely cause a brain drain and loss of business to other regional banking centers, particularly Dubai,” he said in his study. – Joseph Holandes Ubalde, GMANews.TV