WILLEMSTAD - A moratorium on foreign workers will not help the sector but rather the tackling of unfair competition. That is the opinion of executive director of the Curaçao Contractors Association (AAV) Raymond Jamanika.
Jamanika hereby responds to the recently announced Ministerial Regulation (MR) "Moratorium work permits for unskilled and low-skilled foreign workers".
“We stand for fair competition. A contractor that pays people fairly, also makes social contributions, and companies that pay wage and profit tax. The AAV therefore has house rules: a company pays contributions and taxes, otherwise it cannot participate in public tenders. On the other hand, the payment of workers must also be fair and good.
Furthermore, a vision must be developed in the sector regarding hiring foreign employees. Sometimes outside knowledge is needed. Look at Aqualectra, it sometimes also has to attract engineers from abroad.
We stand for our employees, regardless of whether they are local or foreign: they must be serious, up to standard and receive a fair salary. On the other hand, they work in a good and safe company that abides by the rules.”
Jamanika supports the idea that as many Curaçao workers as possible should be employed, but if a good tiler cannot be found, the government must be open to dialogue and it must be possible to hire a foreign tiler. In short, he argues, the policy should not be so strict that it will not be possible to find and recruit experts in the future.
Incidentally, Jamanika indicates that the contracting industry is currently going through such difficult times that the sector is not really concerned with the issue of foreign workers. The AAV wonders what policy will be pursued regarding foreign workers if the refinery would start to operate again or if it is taken over.
He indicates that all kinds of assumptions are made in the Council of Ministers, but that it has never been investigated why it is difficult to find local employees.
“We have lost thousands of professionals. They went abroad. Not because there is no work here, but also because as a worker you want more than is offered. And it is not always about money. Maybe the motivation is not there because we always build the same. This is not attractive to young people. We do not use the creativity of young people enough. The position of foreigners is different. They earn more here than in their own country.”
Jamanika wonders what exactly "low-educated" means about the list of professions where foreigners are no longer allowed to be hired.
“I don't like that term. Someone is trained at the level that suits him and can still grow enormously as a worker. What is "low"? A highly educated professor cannot build bricks. I believe that these types of documents should be able to justify and support the content and go along with developments in the world.”