Asitha Udaya Priyantha has found the dream job: The 22-year-old is already his own boss, cruising Sri Lanka’s streets in his autorickshaw, earning good money on his own time.
However, this is not what the government wants its young people doing as 1 million jobs in booming sectors, such as construction, go unfilled and businesses look abroad for laborers to get work done.
It is a puzzling scenario for Sri Lanka, which for decades has exported labor to the Middle East and reaped the foreign exchange flowing back to a country impoverished from years of war.
Photo: AFP
However, now, amid an economic upswing, the government is trying to lure them back, offering competitive wages and other sweeteners to get workers into blue-collar jobs at home, where they are needed.
Policymakers are also being urged to tap another source of underutilized labor: the glut of tuk-tuk drivers on Sri Lanka’s roads.
There are 1.2 million tuk-tuk drivers in Sri Lanka — far more than is needed for a small island of 21 million, according to the union representing tuk-tuk drivers.
Photo: AFP
The United Three Wheel Drivers and Industry Association said most of the newcomers swelling the already oversaturated ranks are young men keen to make a quick buck.
“The trend is for young people to start driving a three-wheeler no sooner they get a license,” association secretary Rohana Perera said. “If we continue like this we will not have young people to do any other job in the country.”
School leavers only need 50,000 rupees (US$333) for a down payment on a three-wheeler, money they can raise easily in loans from family, he added.
Priyantha was attracted to the profession after growing tired of the low pay and long hours at his regular job in a photography studio.
“I saved some money and bought a three-wheeler, and now I am my own boss,” Priyantha said. “I have more freedom and I earn twice as much.”
The union wants the government to increase the minimum working age for rickshaw drivers from 18 to 35 to curb the flow of new recruits flooding the overcrowded roads.
There have also been calls for an import ban on trishaws from neighboring India to curtail supply.
The Professional Three Wheel Drivers’ Association blames Sri Lanka’s lack of vocational training for young graduates getting behind the wheel instead of taking up better paying jobs in underfilled sectors.
“Unless there are radical changes to prepare school leavers for gainful employment, they will take a shortcut and start driving three-wheelers,” the association’s Nishantha Perera said.
The drain of young workers into tuk-tuks compounds a labor crisis for the government, which has overseen robust economic growth since the 37-year civil war ended in 2009.
The construction industry, undergoing an unprecedented post-war boom, has been forced to turn to India, Bangladesh and Nepal for the 400,000 workers it needs to build the hotels and condominiums springing up in Sri Lanka’s cities.
Advertisements aimed at Nepali workers placed in industry magazines promote US$450-a-month salaries in addition to annual return airfares and health and accident insurance.
Some construction companies are giving away motorcycles and small cars as incentives to retain skilled workers who commit to two to five years of service.
Meanwhile, the government hopes rising wages and economic optimism will encourage some of the estimated 2 million Sri Lankan workers abroad to return home and enjoy the good times.
“Already in the construction industry, the wages are comparable with what is offered in Middle Eastern countries,” Sri Lankan Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera said. “I am sure many will prefer to return, because they will be closer to their families and working conditions are much better here.”
They will be sorely needed. The government expects to create more than 1 million new jobs within three years as major investments, especially in a new financial zone in the capital, Colombo, begin to take shape.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe wants Sri Lankans — whether at home or abroad — filling those vacancies.
“I am not asking for a large number of foreign workers to come in, but there should be a way of attracting our own Sri Lankans back here with higher incomes,” he said.
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