How will emiratization succeed?
The UAE government is struggling to encourage more Emiratis to work in the private sector. But they will first have to change the educational and labor conditions in the country, say analysts.
February 12, 2010 10:43 by Aarti Nagraj
“If I am a private sector employer in the Gulf, when I hire somebody from abroad, what do I get? I get a pretty good education depending on where they are from, I get a relatively low wage… Basically, I get really good skills, for much less than the reservation wage for a national,” Dyer says.
“Also, because [expatriates'] work permits are tied to my sponsorship, they have no mobility. And so they don’t have a lot of ability to push me in terms of promotions and salary increases; because they are tied to me, they don’t really have the free choice to go and be competitive. So that keeps their costs low,” he explains. Also, while it is possible to dismiss an expatriate worker anytime, it has become very hard to fire an Emirati for being unproductive, thanks to the new legislation.
“And then you have illegal activity such as keeping [expatriates'] passports, and you really get into a situation where you have a lot of control over foreign workers, which you don’t have over the nationals,” Dyer explains.
Another factor that gives expatriates an edge over the locals is their exposure to the requirements of the labor market.
“One thing I have really noticed is that there is not a lot of job or labor market information available to your average Arab youth,” says Dyer.
“When they think about what they want to do when they grow up, they turn to the family, they turn to what they know. There is not a lot of information out there for them to consume about other choices,” he says.
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12 Comments
I like the article which is a very balanced one. The root cause if I may add is education (not the degree type) but the education of dignity of labour, equality, equal opportunities, workers rights etc.
The policy adopted by the government i must say is flawed. If you incentivice for lazyness, for being a national, for ineffency etc you are going to get a young generation who has no motivation to excell.
Private sector is competitive and Emaratis should learn to rough it out and succeed. After all the expats will come in droves only when there is opportunity. Once the shift happens which we are seeing there will be a reverse flow. This will hurt the nation and they need to gear up and face reality.
So the solution would be to make it an equal opportunity market, provide permanent residence to expats and include them in the day to day running of the country like it happens in other countries. A tall order one might say, but a visionary leader will do just that for his people. Make them competent.
The approach currently being used by the Emirati government is completely ridiculous. Changing and creating laws to make the private sector more appealing to the average Emirati does not work to their benefit at all. In fact, it only encourages the same unproductive and complacent mind set that the general Emirati population has been so famously criticized for. The only difference will be that they will be contaminating the private sector with the same substandard work ethic. Salaries and employment opportunities shouldn’t be tied to nationality, but rather productivity and merit. This would give Emiratis motivation to work harder and be able to compete with expatriates on an even playing field. Otherwise, employers in the private sector will never see any incentive to hire an emirati over an expatriate because one is skilled and productive (the Expatriates) and the other is lazy and stupid because there is simply no motivation whatsoever to be any different (the Locals). Forgive my generalizations, but for the most part this is the reality.
One other factor that attracts UAE nationals to the public sector are public
holidays. For eg in the banking sector, public holidays such as EID
holidaysand others are way shorter than the public sectors because
holidays are governed by the UAE Central Bank.Holidays for both public & private
sectors needs to be standardized. Families tend to encouage their children to join
the public sector due to work /life balance and so families can spend quality time
and pursue other interests such as education, hobby or start of a business.
One main factor why the emirtisation strategy placed for the banking
sector has failed is the fact the authorities have failed to differetiate
between private and local banks. The annual mandatory 4% quote of
recruting nationals was just not fair for the private banks who
had restrictions on the number of branches they could open in the. UAE.
Where as, the local bank had no restrictions whatsoever.Employing 4 %
annually was a struggle for the private banks.
Even when career fairs exist in Shj, Dubai, Abu Dhabi etc.., yes, you will
see more Emirati’s at the stands of the public / local based companies to apply for jobs. However said ,Emiratisation has come a long way in the
banking sector.
The global financial crisies has played a major part now a days for private
companies who mostly have seized to employ in these current circumstances)
to recruit Emirati’s due to some of the reasons included in the above article and
cutting cost ofcourse.Emirati’s have to be flexible and open to private sector if jobs
arise as there are not much jobs available in the public sector othewise not only will
they be unemployed but may take the risk of loosing their skills and their degree could
be obsolete after being out of the workplace for so long. This will further have a big
impact their chances of finding a job, let alone ‘a suitable one’
A very concerned Emirati.
The government approach to Emiratization is exactly backwards. As an Expat Professor, I deal with students everyday. The Emirati women are very bright, and far more motivated than men. The men feel “entitled”. They think things should be given to them by the government. In most countries, young people get ahead in life by working hard. In the UAE, many, not all, Emiratis think they do not have to work hard, because they will be taken care of. The UAE should cut back on government jobs, reduce gov salaries to market, and allow the private sector to fire lazy employees. The era of entitlement would be over quickly.
SIR,
UNLESS THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS FORCED BY LAW TO DO SO,
AND WITH A SENCE OF NATIONAL RESPONSIBILTY,THEN EMIRATIZATION WILL SUCCEED.THANKS
What Rob said; there’s far too much of a “To the Manor Born” mentality amongst many Emiratis, overwhelmingly men. I count myself rather lucky in that about half of my close friends are Emiratis, and each and every one of them is hardworking whether working in the public or private sectors – they are however in the minority.
The carrots haven’t worked; so how about sticks?
Rather than throwing money at private companies to hire Emiratis, the government has to quit the welfare state mentality and make public sector salaries and conditions comparable to that of the public sector. As long as short hours, long holidays, guaranteed promotion, job security regardless of incompetence and 70 per cent payrises are the norm, there will never be any widespread hiring of Emiratis in the private sector.
Promotion on merit in the public sector is essential too. The solutions are all so obvious but try encouraging the government to tell 20-year-old Emiratis that their starting salary as a pen-pusher for a government department will be Dh8,000 and see how far you get.
Emiratis are 10% unemployed… hard task
I do not know why we blame ambitious UAE Nationals for not joining the private sector? I think there are other UAE Nationals who do not have a degree and only have high school certificates but can work in the private sector effectively.
My arguement is that, not all UAE Nationals are ambitious and have Master or Bachelor degrees, and those struggle to find a job in the public sector, so why do not we look at that segmant too?
How many years now they’ve been doing this Emiratization? They even set an employment/recruitment offices only for Emiratis. Unless the government stop pampering and tolerating their locals, to work starting from the entry level, not to always start in managerial position doing nothing but to sip coffee and chit chat.
Emiratis Employment:
10% Employed and functional
80% Employed and not functional (doing nothing)
10% Unemployed
is there any law affect promotion in private sector in UAE