Dubai OFWs in face of emirate’s credit crisis

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—With the repercussions of Dubai’s worst financial crisis still hanging thick in the air like lost secrets, life for most Filipinos working in this Middle Eastern cosmopolitan enclave goes on, their resilience hanging tough against yet another litmus test.

Christopher Benecio, a 30-year-old civil engineer from Roxas City, Panay came to Dubai November last year along with four other Filipino engineers. At the time, Dubai was already beginning to feel the effect of the global recession as companies started downsizing and retrenching in bulk.

By March the following year, all three of Benecio’s batch mates had already been terminated, with the first to lose his job in January.

Benecio has gone back to the Philippines, having left Dubai on December 5 this year on a paid vacation. But, he said, given the situation of his employer (Arif & Bintoak Consulting Architects and Engineers), he said he might opt to work for his previous employer, Megawide Construction in Makati, Metro Manila.

“We were getting fewer and fewer projects,” Benecio said, adding that Arif & Bintoak has resorted to implementing a one-month forced unpaid leave to cut cost. “If there was still no project after that period, it’s another forced leave or you can choose to be terminated,” he added. This, however, could not immediately be confirmed from company officials.

Prior to implementing a forced leave, the company cut down salaries of its employees by 10 percent and took away benefits, according to Benecio.

Moreover, he said, the situation at Arif & Bintoak is uncertain. “You don’t know when you’d finally get your notice of termination. It’s very difficult to work under that situation,” he said. “So why go back?”

Benecio did not divulge how much he was getting; he said he was able to save just enough to keep him and his family—a housewife and two children aged six and four—going during the transition to his old job when he returns home.

Benecio said he has submitted his resume to several companies in other countries and was awaiting reply.

Dubai’s construction sector was hardest hit by the global recession as the emirate’s real estate bubble burst. This being a result of what financial gurus said was the reckless and unsustainable lending practices arising from the deregulation and securitization of real estate mortgages in the United States. These mortgage-backed securities reinforced risky lending practices and, in the process, fed a global speculative real estate bubble.

Arif & Bintoak Consulting Architects and Engineers, which was established in 1975, has a portfolio that includes large-scale urban developments and had reported an annual project value of approximately $490 million.

Unlike Benecio, however, 58-year-old Alfredo Ranin, a former seaman who is now quality control officer at Wartsila Middle East and due to retire in 2011, said he’ll finish his remaining two years with the company and go home where, he said, work is also waiting for him. Home is Orion, Bataan, where his housewife, five children, and five grandchildren are.

Ranin, who has been in Dubai since 1992, said Wartsila UAE is “still busy” providing services to various ship owners, including commercial ones needing dry docking.
He said several fellow OFWs have left Wartsila UAE, apparently to dodge the effects of the ongoing crisis. “They have sought better employment opportunities at another Wartsila operation elsewhere or at a different company.”

“I’m staying. I’ll finish the two years then head home,” Ranin said.

Established in 1834 and headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Wartsila manufactures large diesel and gas engines for ships and power generation companies. In 2008 its total workforce was 18,810 spread in several countries across the globe.

Twenty-four-year-old Katrina “Kate” Oquialda, for her part, first arrived in Dubai on March 29, 2008 on a visit visa. She found a job in June of that year as a sales merchandiser. She quit in December 2008. Failing to find a new job, she went home in March this year, and came back in August, again on a visit visa.

All in a month’s time upon her arrival, she found a job as a hotel receptionist, but resigned because she found a better-paying one as waitress at a beach bar, and then resigned again because the third one—cashier at a high-end candy and chocolate shop Candylicious—is “much, much better,” she said.

Candylicious is located in what has been hyped as the biggest mall in the world—Dubai Mall, a $20-billion project that has a wall-sized aquarium and about 1,200 shops. It opened in November last year.

Oquialda, whose family lives in Pasay, said it was tougher looking for a job in Dubai earlier this year when the effects of the global recession was at its height than it is in the past few months. “There were more job opportunities. In fact, I was able to find three in only a month’s time,” she said.

Upon her return to Dubai, Oquialda, obviously a risk-taker, had about $1,000, that, she said, her mother gave her, and which she used for the rent, utilities, and food during the time she was job-hunting. With the high cost of living in Dubai, $1,000 (or about 3,672) could only last for barely two months.

Oquialda said she’ll continue taking her chances in Dubai. “It’s a lot more difficult to find a job in the Philippines than it is here,” she said.

Arnel Sanchez, who holds a degree in accountancy with earned units in MBA and MPA arrived in Dubai on January1, 2009 to try his luck. He came on a spouse visa arranged by his wife, Mary Grace, an architect by profession working currently as senior designer at Josef Gartner GmbH-Dubai.

Sanchez was able to secure employment as purchase officer at a steel company in the Dubai Investment Park, a free trade zone, around August. He, however, quit after a month when a friend convinced him to transfer to another company which has a better offer; nothing came of it.

“I thought I would be able to move in to the new company, but nay. Now, I’m back looking for another job. That episode taught me a lesson—be contented with what you have,” he said, noting that in these trying Dubai times, the best way to go is stay where you are and weather it.

Sanchez said it’s difficult to look for a job that fits his mold. “They (prospective employers) ask for a driver’s license and ‘UAE experience,’” he explained.

Being a purchase officer, Sanchez needs mobility and, therefore, a driver’s license. It takes months in classroom lecture, driving lessons, and actual driving tests; and, at times, up to 10,000 dirhams (P130,000) to obtain a driver’s license in Dubai because of strict government measures.

Seldom does one pass an actual test on first try; it usually takes four to five attempts. A student who has failed is required to undergo lecture again before going through another actual test. The repeated lecture and actual test require another round of payments, which explains the prohibitive total cost.

Jobless as he is, Sanchez’s chances of getting a driver’s license is nil—he doesn’t have the money. Despite this, his hopes remain high. “Despite the challenges of the current economy here in Dubai and all over the world, I still don’t think it’s a bad time to be looking for a job. Demand is still high and good offers can be found at plenty of places,” he said, adding that he will also opt to apply for other jobs.

Josef Gartner GmbH—Dubai is part of the Gartner Group, which is headquartered in Germany and is engaged in steel and glass architectural structures with offices in 11 countries.

Sanchez and his wife have a five-year-old daughter staying with Sanchez’s parents in Davao.

According to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dubai has the most number of OFWs from among the country’s seven emirates.

The UAE, as of 2008 has 299,241 OFWs, of which 167,264 were in Dubai; 85,999 in Abu Dhabi; 28,856 in Sharjah; 9,824 in Raz al Khaima; 4,914 in Aj Man; 1,829 in Um al Qain, and 555 in Fujairah, according to MFA.

There were no immediately available official figures on the number of OFWs that have gone home due to the recession and Dubai’s debt woes.

On November 25, 2009, Dubai requested a freeze on debt repayments by its largest and most indebted group, Dubai World, liable for $59 billion. This sent shock waves in stock markets around the world as equities dropped and fears of a looming collapse of the emirate’s economy sprang forth.

This reporter had since repeatedly tried to reach Philippine Ambassador to UAE Grace Princesa, and Consul General Noel Servigon for their comments—but received no reply.- Jojo Dass, INQUIRER.net, December 13, 2009