By
Sherwin Long
The
Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworld.com
03 19 06
With
the rapid increase in government and private construction projects,
there has been a steady flow of expatriate workers into the
country. Is this trend undermining the local construction industry?
These
workers are busy at work on a car park obliquely opposite the
Government campus at the corner of Richmond and Queen Streets,
Port-of-Spain.
Civil
engineers Adrian Leonce, 27, and Hassan Sevki, 59, slipped away
from work to unwind at the Hilton Trinidad’s lounge a
few minutes after 7 pm, last Thursday.
Leonce,
a Trinidadian, and Sevki, who is Turkish, both help oversee
renovation work at the Hilton.
The
two men sipped their drinks and shared jokes.
In
between their playful banter, they took time to discuss the
issue of foreign workers in T&T and this country’s
construction boom.
Sevki,
who spent most of his life in England, has worked in his native
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus.
When
asked his reason for working in T&T, Sevki was blunt.
“Your
economy is vibrant. The boom has allowed me to come here,”
he said.
Sevki
is quick to defend himself against critics who believe his job
should have gone to a local.
“I
am not a threat. I am trying to give. I am 59 years old. Where
am I going to take what I learned over the years, to the coffin?”
Sevki
said hiring a foreign consultant or engineer who was unwilling
to share his knowledge was a waste.
His
gaze fell on Leonce who nod his head in agreement.
“It
should be a partnership. For example, we (in T&T) might
not have experience with certain types of construction. In that
case you will need someone with that experience who might be
a foreigner,” Leonce explained.
Quantity
surveyor and former independent Senator Derek Outridge had a
different outlook.
With
T&T’s energy sector burgeoning and a rapid increase
in government and private construction projects, foreign investment
and expatriate workers have flowed into the country steadily.
Outridge,
a past president of the Institute of Surveyors, believes the
trend of hiring foreign construction workers or consultants
was undermining the local construction industry.
He
was highly critical of the Government’s reliance on these
contractors and consultants.
“The
argument that there is so much work available holds no water
if you are not hiring local people or giving them first preference,”
he said.
“Especially
when we don’t have strategic planning. What we have is
bad planning.”
He
recalled the last boom T&T went through in the late 70s
and early 80s and noted similarities with the country’s
current prosperity.
Outridge
said during the country’s first boom foreign construction
workers and firms poured into T&T. However, when the milk
of success curdled and the boom ended these firms packed their
bags and left.
As
a result of the country’s downturn in fortunes, Outridge
said local consultants were asked by the Government to slash
their prices for the country’s sake.
He
noted that the majority of consultants co-operated but were
not being rewarded today for their prior sacrifice.
His
resentment was clear.
Outridge
said it took nearly 12 years after the recession for some local
construction and consultancy firms to regain their footing and
grow.
Currently,
he pointed to some factors which conspire to unravel this growth.
“The
foreign contractor poaches staff from local companies by paying
your worker more than you can give him,” he said.
“You
lose your professionals after years of providing training for
them. Now you cannot invest in training people because they
are likely to leave your company.”
Outridge
added this stymied growth in the local construction industry
as most times local firms get no reward for developing a T&T
national.
He
also pointed to limited transfer of technological knowledge
being passed down by these foreign firms and he questioned whether
there was an agency set up to measure how much this knowledge
was shared.
Turning
his eye to the tendering process whereby these foreign contractors
are preferred to local ones, Outridge accused the State of circumventing
its own Central Tenders Board processes.
He
said a “development contract” was being used by
the State where these foreign companies provided everything
from design to construction.
Outridge
added that both the PNM and the UNC governments used this loophole.
What
particularly irked Outridge was
that
under this type of contract, foreign firms were also responsible
for providing consultancy.
However,
he said in the case of quantity surveyors, most times a local
firm was sub-contracted to do the job by a foreign contractor
after being overlooked by the Government.
Outridge
said the Institute of Surveyors was looking into this practice.
“I
want quantity surveyors to take the position that they are not
going to work for foreign firms that want to hire us. This is
my country and my taxpayer money is helping fund these (state)
ventures. Local consultants should be given first preference,”
he fumed.
In
spite of Outridge’s aversion to foreign contractors and
consultants, some developers welcomed the influx of skilled
foreigners whether they be project managers or plumbers.
Developer
Kamal Mohammed felt the fast pace of construction taking place
in the country warranted foreign skilled labour coming to these
shores.
Mohammed
is currently developing gated communities in Glencoe and Petit
Valley.
In
this current construction boom, he said quality control was
an issue as well as keeping down the cost of construction.
“All
your good skilled labour is fully employed. As you expand more
and more you are taking people who are less skilled and less
trained and you are also short of project management skills,
so supervision could also deteriorate,” he added. “You
end up having higher costs and giving lesser quality.”
Mikey
Joseph, T&T Contractors Association president, admitted
there was a genuine lack of skilled and semi-skilled labour
in the construction sector.
He
gave an example of skilled labourers as masons, carpenters and
welders while semi-skilled labourers were assistants to these
tradesmen who picked up skills along the way.
Joseph
said he was not against foreign workers being employed in T&T
but there needed to be certain stipulations.
“I
think the preference should be given to Caricom nationals and
if the (human) resources are not available in the region then
go extra-regionally,” he said.
“With
the scope of projects the Government is currently undertaking
if a contractor can’t source (foreign) labour it would
be to his disadvantage.”
In
spite of Joseph’s acceptance of foreign workers, he called
on contractors to adhere to the country’s immigration
laws when hiring.
“Some
workers come through the back door,” he said. “Right
now we have no figures but we hear about companies having people
from Guyana, Venezuela or St Vincent who are here unofficially.”
Sevki,
who is in Trinidad on a work visa, felt he had a solution to
deal with any scepticism over the flood of foreign workers coming
into T&T.
He
said strict performance evaluation coupled with a focus on educating
T&T nationals was key.
Sevki
used Dubai, one of the fastest growing cities on earth, as an
example to T&T.
In
Dubai, more than $100 billion worth of construction projects
are underway or in their early planning phases.
Dubai,
an emirate of the United Arab Emirates, is positioning itself
to be the financial centre of the Middle East.
He
said Dubai’s growth could be duplicated in T&T at
a smaller scale.
“You
know what is Dubai’s secret? They used foreign workers
to help build them up. But while this was happening their young
minds were in universities in Europe getting skills, so when
the foreigners leave a local person would then come in to manage,”
he said.
Sevki
was quick to point out most expatriates were over the age of
40.
He
gazed at Leonce, noting his youthful features.
For
him, being a foreigner in a strange land is not daunting.
Sevki
already describes T&T as “the best foreign country”
he has worked in and he plans to retire here.
He
reiterated that he was here to pass on what he had learned over
the years.
Sevki’s
advice to T&T, regarding our boom, was simple.
“I
say bring in the foreigner. Use their expertise. Take what information
they have in their head. They will leave in two years’
time. But you must have a system set up where you evaluate them
every six months. If they are no good, then send them home.
Get rid of them.”
