Mayor Azim: Locals don’t show up to work, why is it a problem to hire expats?

Many local employees hired by businesses fail to show up to work, resulting in disruptions to daily operations, says Male’ City Mayor Adam Azim.

Speaking during a city council meeting on Wednesday, Azim said that many of the vendors at the local market in Male’ are elderly individuals, and that most of them are unable to hire reliable local workers.

“These places are run by very elderly individuals. They are unable to hire workers. They are unable to hire local workers. Even when they do manage to hire locals, they show up the first day but fail to come in the next day, and they are unable to run their business. This is a prevalent issue facing all businesses in general,” he said.

Azim believes there’s no reason why expatriates should be allowed to work as vendors at the local market.

He questioned why customers make an issue out of expatriates working at the local market, when they are fine being served by foreign workers at cafes and restaurants.

“They are there in all cafes and restaurants, in all major restaurants, all construction companies and shops. So, the thing is, they can recruit expatriates if they cannot get [local] workers, right?” he said.

Azim said that it is only fair that businesses be allowed to hire expatriates if they are unable to get local workers, so that they can run their operations.