(MENAFN - The Peninsula) There is no trade off between fairness and economic prosperity: this is the opinion of Nada Al Nashif (pictured), Regional Director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Doha attending the Unctad XIII. "If you have a happier and healthier workforce, this is going to make better economic sense" said Al Nashif.
An economy that doesn't respect certain standards for its workers is surely not sustainable in the long run and it's less reliable: and reliability is the fundamental basis for any business.
"If workers have a more secure environment, if they have better working conditions, if they have voice and representation, they are going to be more productive" Al Nashif told The Peninsula. "The job market needs a regulatory framework and effective implementation, and Qatar is in the position to set a standard for the whole region" she added.
What is mostly needed in Qatar and in the Arab world is a social dialogue system: a formal structure of dialogue between government, private sector and workers. The reaffirmation of international standards, including the minimum wage, coming as an agreed output of this dialogue is the ideal scenario.
One of the other things that the Arab job market needs is to better links between productivity and wages. An economy where salaries are not related to productivity is not efficient and not sustainable in the long run. National employment policies are been applied extensively in the GGC having a strong impact on social peace and helping structuring the countries' education system in order to form a skilled national population, but the Arab employers are still complaining about the lack of skills of the national labour force.
"Arab employers in the private sector complain the most about the lack of skills of the national labour force, but they are the ones that are investing the least in job trainings" said Al Nashif.
