The Bhutanese Leading the way.
There is a recent debate going on that skilled TVET graduates are not getting an opportunity to work, despite the Ministry of Industry and Employment (MoICE) seeking to have a balance of both foreign and Bhutanese workers. There is a persistent dispute that the contractors favour foreign workers.
Contractors
The former Executive Director of the Construction Association of Bhutan (CAB) and some of the contractors explain as to why this is happening, and TVET graduates expressed their worries over the matter.
“Most of the contractors employing foreign workers do so because they are cheaper than Bhutanese workers, and they do not have family problems; they are continuously working; however, for the local workers, they tend to take more leaves, and thirdly, Bhutanese are not ready to do overtime work,” said Tshering Yonten, the former ED of CAB.
He said that employees who are foreign nationals make two attendances each day, as both the employer and employee prefer to work during the day and night time.
Bhutanese workers have to paid a minimum of Nu 800 to Nu 900. Whereas, the foreign workers are paid a maximum of Nu 700 to Nu 800 depending on their skills. Most of the time, the foreign workers are skilled. But Bhutanese workers are mainly unskilled and costly to hire.
“For TVET, they do not want to work with the foreign workers. They tend to be more xenophobic, such as when working and not staying at a campsite; most of them go back to their homes. Around 10 percent might stay back for those who are coming from far away,” he said.
In accordance with the latest regulations from the department, there’s now a strict limit on the proportion of foreign workers allowed in both rural and urban areas. The new mandate mandates that half of the workforce must consist of foreign employees, while the other half must be Bhutanese citizens.
These regulations, which align with the 2022 guidelines on managing foreign workers, specify that non-Bhutanese individuals can only be hired for positions where there’s a shortage of local labour or where Bhutanese workers are not interested in employment.
However, the former ED, CAB said, “Since we could not balance this, we have requested the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment that if you want to replace foreign workers with Indians, this will never happen, during one of the meetings, and if you are going to do that, we are going in the wrong direction.”
“We asked them to appoint the skilled TVET as supervisor’s electricians and operators. We suggested they concentrate on this and train them so practically these people will work as supervisors; otherwise, what happens is, for example, a mason comes with training; they tend to act like supervisors; that’s why most of them do not get along with the foreign workers,” he added.
Upon asking him about the experience required to be a supervisor, he said that to become a supervisor, you don’t require hands-on experience. If they are given the opportunity to stack bricks, they cannot do it, but they can visualize and say what the quality is and how the correct way is.
He said, “Of course, the ministry has not accepted that, but we are continuously requesting the government to train our Bhutanese as supervisors and operators one step ahead. At the sametime, there is the stigma of working on construction sites. Parents would love to have their children as servants rather than masons.”
It was said that the contractors are also welcome to hire the TVET graduates as supervisors if it is included in the standard bidding document. Currently, most of the TVET graduates are not working as per their training.
TVET graduates
On the other hand, the a TVET graduate said, “It is not because we do not want to work; it is just that when we go to look for jobs, people hire foreign workers as their plumbers and electricians because they are less costly. We usually do not get to work at bigger construction sites or partnerships.”
“It is usually the ones with National Certificate 3 that tend to get more work than us who do not have one,” a TVET graduate said.
The TVET graduates said that what they want now is the trust of the contractors to hire them and grow in this line of work. The issue is also the rate of payment being low.
Foreign worker
Aminar Rahman is a contractor who has been working here in Bhutan for 25 years. Upon asking him what the reason is for them working in Bhutan, He said, “When we come out to work outside of the country, it is because we do not have a choice; we are poor people. We have to work some; we worked in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, but it is far for us. However, Bhutan is quite near for us.”
“People here are nice; they pay us on time,” he added.
Upon asking him how his experience has been working with Bhutanese graduates, he said that he thinks they are new to it, and their finishing is not so good, therefore, they are training on the job.
Currently, he has a few Bhutanese working with him, however, he said that their work is not up to par, therefore they are getting scolded by the owners.
It was mentioned that while Bhutan has decent electricians, the country has the worst plumbers.
According to him, while employing foreign nationals, they follow certain criteria related to the job, like the need for people with friendly dispositions and no substance addiction.
He said, “We could not bring anyone into trouble because the regulations are stricter here, and we came here to work.”
The foreign workers’ work life includes working on Sundays from 8 am to 2 pm and receive the full minimum pay. They begin work on weekdays at 8 am. and finish at 5 pm with lunch breaks in between. They can choose to work overtime or not after five.
“We go home during January when there is no work, and during our festive season,” he said.
When asked if he had any problems working with workers from Bhutan, he said he has heard of cases where workers from Bhutan would receive their daily wages but not show up for work.
The foreign employees claimed they were unaware of the reason behind their preference over other foreign workers.
