'No immediate layoffs of Nepali workers'

KATHMANDU, Nov 30: Foreign employment agents have said impacts of financial trouble of Dubai World -- the Dubai government-owned investment company -- would be nominal to Nepal. They, however, said it might lead to huge layoffs and decline in demands for migrant workers, if the financial suffering of the company continues. [break]

Gyan Prasad Gaire, general secretary of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), said Dubai World´s financial trouble wouldn´t lead to immediate job loss in the oil rich state. “It would, however, impact on future demand for workers, if the financial crisis of the company lingered,” Gaire, who is also the proprietor of Rara Employment Consult, told myrepublica.com.

Quoting CM Dhakal, Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) leader in United Arab Emirates, Gaire said about 200 Nepali workers, who were recruited through Dubai Labor Supply Company, were working in the company´s different ventures.

“We have received no report about the delay in providing salary to workers by the company,” Gaire said. There might not be the situation that would force Nepali workers to return from the Gulf state immediately, Gaire quoted Dhakal as telling him.

Dubai´s ailing financial health came into limelight after the company asked for a six-month delay in repaying its debts till May next year. Dubai World has total debts of $59 billion.

Som Bataju, vice president of NAFEA, also said demands for workers from the company might decline if the company´s financial health worsened in the coming days. “Though existing workers wouldn´t have to face layoff, we can´t rule out the possibility of demands from Dubai declining in the days to come,” Bataju, who is also the proprietor of SOS Manpower Agency that supplies workers to Dubai´s firms, said.

The Dubai government announced last week that the company intended to request its financial partners to extend maturities till at least 30 May, 2010 for the payment of $3.5 billion. The company accounts for $59 billion, nearly three quarters of the emirate´s $80 billion debt.

Dubai World, which was established as a holding company in 2006, employs around 50,000 workers in 100 cities across the world. The UAE, the fourth most popular destination for Nepali workers, received 10,357 Nepali workers during the first four months of current fiscal year, down from 12,752 recorded during the same period last year.

With the onset of global financial meltdown, major emirates in UAE, including Dubai, saw slackness in their economies after a six-year boom, leading to huge retrenchment and layoffs.