While workers face a harsh reality of unemploymentVP Hadi: Our Labor is Yemen’s largest asset [Archives:2007/1047/Business & Economy]

By: Raidan Al-Saqqaf
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Vice President AbduRabu Mansour Hadi inaugurated a special event held on the 1st of May on the Occasion of International Labor Day. Hadi stated that Yemen was built on the shoulders of its Labor and workforce, adding that on this day the country can celebrate their hard work and commitment to Yemen's Development.

On the same occasion, Secretary-General of the Yemeni Labor Union Mr. Yahya Al-Na'ami has stated that although the government speaks highly of the role labor play in national development, the government continues to ignore improving the situation of the workforce. He also referred to the delay in reforming the Health Insurance Act which will give coverage to workers in the event of illness.

Several workers stated that they celebrate this day as unemployed people; having worked for less than 200 days per year, it has become hard to survive given the economic hardship and large number of unemployed workers who daily scope the market looking for jobs.

With unemployment standing at 40 percent of the workforce, it is hard to see recognition, said painter Mohammed Noman; “we work to survive if we can't find work we basically stop surviving”. AbdulRahman, a butcher, said “I slaughter chickens in order to make a living, my university qualification proved to be worth nothing, I've been enlisted for a government job for over four years, but so far I have not got a thing.”

Vice President Hadi said that the government is very keen on improving the situation of the workforce, adding that the laws are being reformed in order to protect the rights of the workers, and regulate the employee- employer relationship.

However, the vast majority of workers find themselves away from what constitutes a regular job, they work on daily wages, using whatever skills they have; offer their services to whoever is in need, most of them are constructions workers, painters, carpenters and plumper, and none of them are able to see, or reap, as the benefits described by the Union's administration or the political leadership are none-existent in the world of your average daily-wage Yemeni worker

Yemeni Workers: A Story of Suffering

Finding themselves trapped in very difficult living circumstances, Yemeni young men and women rush to the job market in search of a job or a working opportunity, only to find thousands of such job seekers flooding the job market.

Those who make the choice to working as manual labors have to agree to do a lot of hard work for a very low pay, and sometimes even they accept such work, there are days when manual labor working opportunities are scare.

These workers include literate and educated people, and even some with university qualifications, those with privileged knowledge do sometimes have slightly better working opportunities such as waiters in restaurants and guards working with security companies, but in many cases, they have to resort to their own creativity on how to find work.

AbdulSallam is a high school graduate who was unemployed for two years, after a lengthy and unsuccessful job hunt he decided to borrow some cash and buy a cart to sell bananas, he said that one day while going home he looked at the side of the road, where he saw an opportunity, to sell bananas. He says everything worked well for him for the first couple of days until the municipality came about the confiscated his cart and put him in Jail for two days.

“Damn this government, he says, they don't give you work and they don't allow you to work how shall we make a living?” he commented.

The story of struggle continues, the number of new job openings are always far lower than the number of job seekers, the government is calling upon investors to come to Yemen and offer job opportunities it is also administrating some programs to develop small-scale enterprises and offer loans, but then again, isn't this the same government which confiscated AbdulSallam's bananas, how could AbdulSallam celebrate labor day while being deprived of a job?
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