Economic woes forces companies to refuse JTPA trainees • Official seeks review of laws to entice more locals in the private sector

As many businesses on the island continue to lay off employees due to the slowdown on the island’s tourism economy, the number of companies participating in the government’s on-the-job-training program for graduating students has likewise been decreasing for the past three years.

This year, only six of the 75 companies contacted by the Job Training & Partnership Act office have expressed interest in accepting students for the training program.

According to Felix Nogis, director of JTPA, his office sent 42 letters for the 1999 summer training but only 15 responded positively in assisting the government.

While he recognizes the difficulty faced by many companies as a result of Asia’s financial crisis, he said the private sector must exert more effort in giving jobs to the locals.

However, providing jobs is not so much an issue of the businessmen’s inability to respond to their much-publicized commitment but the unpopularity of working in the private sector among the locals.

Nogis noted that the discrepancy in benefits offered by the private sector and the government is so big that locals would immediately prefer working for the latter. To resolve this issue, he urged legislators to address the issue which has been besetting the government for a long time.

“For as long as this issue is left unresolved, many of the locals would continue to insist on working for the government. Some also would rather become occasional fishermen than working for the private sector,” he added.

Among the benefits which a government employee enjoys aside from a higher rate are medical insurance, attractive retirement package and medical leave. “All of these have become counter productive because they have become obstacles in encouraging our local people to seek employment in the private sector,” said Nogis.

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has earlier proposed the grant of tax credits so that employers can recover such cost in a move to encourage businesses to provide job-related training to local residents.

Businessmen on the island have been criticized for allegedly failing to provide trainings to locals so that they can slowly replace non-resident workers. However, businessmen maintained that the island will remain dependent on guest workers claiming that locals have to change their attitude toward work.

In assisting local residents to become qualified for gainful employment, Chamber president Kerry M. Deets urged the re-organization of the Division of Employment Services to cover three areas: (1) recruitment, (2) workplace-readiness training, and (3) professional placement services.

Joe Ayuyu, owner of McDonald’s fast food, said locals must show that they are willing to work and persevere to stay in one job for a period of time. When he established McDonald’s on the island six years ago, Ayuyu said he was committed to hire only local people even spending some $70,000 to train 14 locals. Unfortunately, only one stayed behind.

Ayuyu maintained that the businessmen are interested in providing jobs to locals but they have to change their attitude towards work. As businesses continue to reel from the effects of Asia’s financial crisis, the local people must value the amount of money and time that businessmen have invested to train them, Ayuyu added.

At the same time, Deets said the CNMI government must offer tax credits to employers who provide a package of benefits such as medical insurance and retirement plans to convince local residents to seek employment in the private sector.

Seventy-five percent of the CNMI government’s $216 million budget goes to salaries and benefits of government employees. Most locals aspire for a government post immediately after graduating in high school due to high salaries and attractive retirement benefits.