MALE, Maldives (9 Aug 2003) -- Thirty-one-year-old Mohamed (not his real name) is a PADI-certified Master Scuba Diver Trainer but presently, he is out of a job. Now he spends most of his time in Male', decorating his room, and going to the sea only for leisure. "I've been given a six months' no pay leave," said Mohamed, of his literally suspended professional existence. "I didn't ask for it. My company just asked me to stay at home until December," he says. But Mohamed is not sure that even if there is a job opening, that he will be the one chosen for it. It seems that the diving industry, which is very closely affiliated with the Maldives' tourism industry, has a preference for foreign instructors -- and foreigners in general. Or so the Maldivian diving instructors allege. "There is a belief among those who manage diving schools, who are mostly foreigners, that foreigners are more fit for the job than Maldivians although we have many Maldivians who hold top qualifications as divers, dive masters and dive instructors," Mohamed told Haveeru. "They make a lot of excuses like that we Maldivians don't know a second language, and all that. But even some of the foreigners they give jobs to do not know a second language. Moreover, the foreign diving instructors and we Maldivians have the same qualifications as diving instructors." The question then arises: is there racial discrimination between Maldivians and foreigners when it comes to the lucrative diving industry. The diving industry, which is one of the main reasons why there is an influx of tourists into Maldives, making tourism the backbone of the Maldives' economy. "Yes, there is no doubt that racism exists," said another local diving instructor who would only give his name as Ismail. Ismail said that even from trivial things existing in resort islands, it is evident there is some "inherent discrimination" against Maldivian staff. "The foreign diving instructors in our resort have their own private quarters while we Maldivian diving instructors do not even have a place to rest, except of course for our lodgings with the rest of the resort staff in their 'labor quarters.' What makes us Maldivians inferior to foreigners?" he asked. Good question, but there are no easy answers. Some diving schools claim that Maldivians are "not reliable" on the jobs. "It is true that some Maldivian diving instructors may behave unpleasantly but these are only isolated cases. The diving schools should give us the benefit of the doubt. All Maldivians cannot be classified as misbehaved," said another local diving instructor, who declined to give his name. No local diving instructor, who was interviewed for this report, wanted to be identified because "we are sure to lose our jobs," they said. Some Maldivian diving instructors question the validity behind resort operators giving the opportunity to foreigners to run diving schools in Maldives. It may be that some Maldivian resort operators are of the belief that the initial capital cost of setting up a diving school is expensive. But local diving instructors refute this argument. "It only costs about US$38,000 to initially set up a diving school with equipment for 30 divers," said a local diving instructor. "This is something that we Maldivian proprietors can do ourselves. Why get foreign companies to set up diving schools in Maldives when the profits from diving schools will be quite lucrative for the resort proprietor?" he asked. Some local diving instructors allege that the foreign-owned diving schools in Maldives "hide" the "real amount of profit" they get from running a diving school in order not to encourage Maldivian resort owners from setting up their own diving schools. Diving schools form one of the major income earners for any resort island; in fact, a major share of the profit that comes into a single resort island goes to the diving school. And when these diving schools are run by foreign parties, it is income that goes out of the Maldives. "We always hear complaints that Maldives cannot retain the income it generates from tourism. Millions of dollars go out of the country each year because there are hardly fully locally owned resort islands. Most resort managements are foreign partnerships and therefore a lot of money that comes into the Maldives goes out. Likewise, income that comes into the diving schools are also money that goes out of the country," commented another local diving instructor. There are a few foreign firms which have to be given due credit for establishing diving schools in Maldives, like EuroDivers for instance. And some diving schools have been crucial in training many Maldivians as diving instructors. But questions rise as to why the diving industry has failed to become localized even after many years. For instance, there is only one Maldivian base leader, and that is at the diving school of Four Seasons Resort Maldives or Kuda Hura island. Except for Kuda Hura, no other diving schools in any resorts employ any Maldivians as base leaders although they have the same qualifications as foreign base leaders. This is not a question that faces only the diving industry, but Maldives' tourism industry as a whole. It has been 30 years since the advent of tourism into the Maldives but still most aspects and areas of tourism are under foreign control. | | Over the years, Maldives has been trying to exert local control over the Maldives tourism industry. This includes a regulation which states that 50 percent of all resort staff have to be locals. But these efforts to give a "Maldivian face" to the local tourism industry has not really had its desired effect. Some resorts still have failed to fulfill their staff quota by hiring more Maldivians. They easily claim that "Maldivians are not reliable" and also that "there is lack of professionally trained and skilled Maldivian people to fill in the vacancies." But this may not be the case with diving instructors. "I disagree that there is a lack of Maldivian diving instructors. On the contrary, there are now many locals PADI-certified, and most of them are filling jobs in many resort islands. But the discriminatory factor is that we Maldivians are given discriminatory facilities at the diving schools. There is a great disparity in salaries. A Maldivian may be given a salary of about Rf5,000 (about US$389) while a foreign diving instructor may be given a salary of US$1,200," said Ismail. And when it comes to laying off staff, Maldivians are the first to go, said Mohamed. "Whenever there is talk of a lay-off, we Maldivians' jobs are on the frontline. Even now I myself am in a suspended state," said Mohamed. He said that while the foreign diving schools will find alternative jobs for their expatriate diving instructors if they are to be laid off, no such alternative employment opportunities are given for the Maldivian diving instructors. A local diving instructor recently alleged that EuroDivers, which runs nine diving schools in Maldives, "laid off" its Maldivian diving instructors but found placements for the company's foreign diving instructors in the company's other diving schools when two of their diving schools in Club Med Faru and Kurumba Village resorts closed down temporarily for renovation. However, EuroDivers denied that there was any favoritism between foreign and local divers and that the company was willing to hire back the Maldivian diving instructors as soon as the two resorts opened along with their two diving schools there. "We find Maldivians to be very hardworking people and we maintain a 50-50 ratio between local and foreign employees in our company," Silke Weber, the regional manager of EuroDivers in Maldives told Haveeru. However, some Maldivian diving instructors seriously alleged that some diving schools in Maldives refuse to altogether employ Maldivians in principle. When a Maldivian diving instructor applied for a position in a diving school, the owners allegedly said, "We don't hire Maldivians." The case grows worse. A Maldivian diving instructor said that the foreigners in diving schools use racist phrases about Maldivians in general such as "bloody Maldivians." "A foreign diving instructor once said to me, 'You Maldivians are fishermen. You only know how to fish. You should go fishing. You don't have a business to be a diving instructor,'" a local diving instructor alleged. Mohamed, and other dissatisfied local diving instructors said that they are planning to take their case to the Tourism Ministry and the Labor Ministry. A resort operator told Haveeru that he is of the opinion that some Maldivian diving instructors are refused jobs because some diving schools require that diving instructors know fluently to speak, read and write the four languages, English, German, Italian, and Japanese. But local diving instructors alleged that some diving schools do hire foreigners who cannot speak extra languages on the pretext that "they can become fluent in the language while on the job." "Why not apply the same criteria for Maldivian diving instructors? We also can learn a second language while on the job," said a local diving instructor. Like the quota set for local staff in resort islands, it will be a good thing if Maldives will introduce legislation that all aspects of the Maldives tourism industry have a quota for local staff. After all, in every country where there is tourism, like Thailand, what their aim is, is to create job opportunities for locals and in the end make the industry one where there is total local control. Maldives also do not have labor unions by which the rights of employees in different industries can be protected. In contrast, in an incident in Sri Lanka, a Maldivian resort operator could not easily fire his Sri Lankan employee because Sri Lanka has stronger legislation to protect its local workers and secure their job security. Meantime, Mohamed, who does not expect to get a job as a diving instructor soon, goes for leisure diving with friends, and sometimes in the mornings and afternoons, can be spotted surfing the waves off Lonuziyaaraiy Kolhu, all the time wondering when he will be able to get back to the job that he had loved all his life. SOURCE - HNS |
