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Employers can always set the conditions for hiring because they are paying and those who wish to be employed need the money. But if the potential employees can find work elsewhere and the potential employer has difficulty finding applicants, it will eventually capitulate and hire who is available.
In the case of the Saudis which employ millions of foreigners to run their country (including hundreds of thousands of Filipinos) it might just be a case of the jilted party pouting. After the Philippine and Indonesian governments added restrictions and asked for conditions on the employment of their citizens (specifically domestic helpers) due to the high incidence of abuses, the Saudis effectively said: We stop hiring you!
Sure, but you need us as much as we need you. We need each other!
Working as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia is demeaning. The Saudi governement only allows the slave-wage standard 0 a month for domestic helpers. I don’t know what that kind of money buys in the desert kingdom, but it sure is not much for Filipinos, many of whom had to beg, steal or borrow hundreds of dollars to be able to get employed in Saudi. Most of them have families back home in the Philippines who depend on their paltry salaries. When the Philippine government requested that the minimum pay for domestics be raised to the more reasonable 0, the filthy-rich Saudis balked. If that’s not arrogance added on to exploitation, I don’t know what is.
But beggars can’t be choosers and Filipinos who are already in Saudi will continue to work under these present conditions. It’s better than doing nothing and going hungry back home. A fact that the wily Saudis are naturally banking on.
That is the nature of a struggle for fairness. You get rebuffed but you don’t give up. Maybe down the line the Saudis will soften up and pay domestic helpers (Filipinos, Indons, Pakistanis, et al.) what they deserve. Of course that means that the Saudis will still be hiring Filipinos and other nationals.
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