RIYADH, 28 September 2004 — The five-month grace period allowed by the Ministry of Labor for the transfer of sponsorship of expatriate workers has been deemed inadequate by a cross-section of opinion makers in the travel and manpower recruitment agencies.
They feel that the restrictions, put on hold till Feb. 10 next year, would only aggravate the problem that it seeks to solve as the time frame to train Saudis to take over the jobs is limited. As a result, expatriates opting for a transfer of sponsorship would be vulnerable to exploitation by their sponsors.
Nasser Al-Tayyar, chairman of the Al-Tayyar Group of Companies, told Arab News that the grace period would help those working under a different sponsor to regularize their status.
While that was a welcome move, there were other problems facing the travel industry. One of them, Al-Tayyar said, was the lack of effective communication skills among Saudis when it comes to dealing with airlines. “One needs to be strong in English and also know the terminology used by the airlines. Unfortunately, the Saudi recruits are not quite up to the task. When they leave, we find it difficult to bring experienced hands from outside not only because of the sponsorship regulations but also because of the Saudization target, which keeps changing.”
Pointing out that the five-month grace period is inadequate, Rashid Al-Mugait, general manager of Al-Mousim Travel, said there is not enough training capacity to support the travel trade in terms of developing skilled Saudi manpower. There are more than 2,000 travel agencies in the Kingdom. Secondly, the industry has suffered from a lack of professionalism, “since manpower recruitment is quite often done on the basis of personal considerations rather than merit.”
Al-Mugait said even when training is available, travel trade is the last choice, especially when many other attractive opportunities are available for trained and skilled Saudis. He hoped that the training program going to be set up by the Supreme Commission for Tourism would address these concerns.
Abdul Majed, a recruitment agent, said businessmen, especially contractors, have been facing problems, since the labor offices were taking more than two months to study visa applications even for carrying out government contracts.
Referring to the Labor Ministry’s regulations, Sri Lankan Ambassador Ibrahim Sahib Ansar felt that the government should consider granting a one-year grace period for the sponsorship change to go through smoothly.
Ansar was speaking on the occasion of a meeting hosted by the embassy for A. Javid Yusuf, senior adviser to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is here in connection with the island republic’s travel fair to be held in Colombo from Oct. 2 to 5.
Both the ambassador and Javid Yusuf interacted with members of the Saudi travel trade for their input on boosting Saudi tourist traffic to the island.
