Work policies, salary structures need to be reviewed, says CSPS

SALARY structures and employment policies need to be reviewed so that Bruneians will be encouraged to tap into the semi-skilled and skilled professions, an expert said.

Dr Diana Cheong (pictured), a senior researcher at the Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies (CSPS) told The Brunei Times salary structures should be reviewed so that manual labour and craftsmanship were made more attractive financially for jobseekers.

"It is a matter of review of salary structures, so it is not so imbalanced at the moment. We need a review of salary structures and employment policies. There could be an imposition of a minimum salary structure, which at least meets the reservation wage of the jobseeker. We need attitude change of our workers and we need to expand VTE as well," she said.

Based on a study conducted in 2009 by CSPS titled, "A Study of Unemployment Issues Among Registered Jobseekers in Brunei Darussalam" semi-skilled and skilled professions of the job market must be attractive, not just in terms of salary range, but also in terms of work conditions.

"There are only so many clerical jobs there. So we need to move them now more into crafts, manual labour and entrepreneurs. Usually, young people are very good in becoming entrepreneurs because they are naturally creative. There needs to be more policies to cater for this gap, rather than (put) the emphasis on conventional academic schooling," she said.

Dr Cheong said short programmes could cater to the lack of skills and experiences for clerical jobs, but there's a need for a more hands-on practical education to move them onto the types of skills needed to become plumbers, electricians and business people, for example.

She said the mismatch between what people want to do and the available jobs should be addressed.

"There are only limited careers in the clerical sector, so we need to re-orientate our jobseekers to alternative jobs, which are where the foreign workers are now. To do so, we need to improve the working conditions and make it more attractive, by also reviewing the salary structures," she said.

According to the report, 94.6 per cent of their 636 samples positively agreed that they were willing to take on any job, so that they would no longer be unemployed. Meanwhile, 95.5 per cent were willing to work in the private sector, 88 per cent to take a position below their qualifications and 82.5 per cent were willing to accept a job below the expected salary range.

"The findings show a very positive attitude, and indicate that on the whole, our sample is actually not choosy in terms of their career choice. Our analysis here is that our sample is quite choosy in terms of the more inferior and manual types of jobs that are lower paid," it said. The Brunei Times