Sunday 31 March 2013

[www.keralites.net] "No clipping of iqamas in ongoing drive"-SAUDI ARABIA

 

No clipping of iqamas in ongoing drive: MoL

 

Hattab Al-Enezi


Saudi Gazette report



JEDDAH As the drive to flush out labor law violators gains momentum, so do rumors that are flying thick and fast. The spokesperson of the Labor Ministry, while putting to rest the rumors about iqamas (residence permits) being clipped by its members conducting the sweep, also emphasized that the ministry is taking its role of inspecting establishments seriously.

A source at the ministry, who preferred to remain anonymous, clarified what is new in the inspection and investigation campaign is that Saudization committees have been placed in the hands of regional governorates. He added that the Interior Ministry is the sole authority in issuing punishments to violating Saudis and expatriates. Previously the investigation was in the hands of the Ministry of Labor and the process was weak because the ministry did not have the authority that regional governorates have mainly regarding implementation of punishment. Now monitoring the market has been reactivated and it will be better handled by the committees, he said.

Labor Ministry spokesman Hattab Al-Enezi told Saudi Gazette that their role is to inspect establishments and write reports on violating companies and file them to the Interior Ministry. The aim of all inspections, he said, is to provide a working environment for Saudis to get jobs and start businesses.

Asked about the rumors that inspection team members tear iqamas of violating expatriates, he said: There is nothing of that sort, it is all rumor and hearsay. We have set up the whole process to proceed in an humanitarian manner.

Wives of expatriates, however, are not allowed to work and any violation in this context will be documented. The law is applied on all violators both Saudis and expatriates. In each case there are two violating Saudis and one expatriate: The two Saudis are the sponsor and the one who allowed a worker who is not under his sponsorship to work for him. All three parties two Saudis and the expatriate will be punished by the Interior Ministry.

The punishment includes fines that range from SR5,000 to SR20,000, stopping the worker from work and deporting him/her to his/her country. Businesses also are handed punishments that include preventing them from services that the Labor Ministry offers.

The committee that goes on these tours include members from the Governorate, the Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Trade, the Municipality, and the Passports Department.

A source in the Passports Department said that a team of officers, specially trained to raid commercial and residential buildings to flush out illegal immigrants, have been deployed from Riyadh. He also revealed that the hype and pace of this operation is expected to continue for another two months.

Similar raids have also been reported from Riyadh and Dammam. When targeting shops and salons, the officers also ask customers for their iqamas and interrogate them about their work and sponsor.

If the workplace and the sponsors name on the iqama do not match, then the guilty are reportedly deported. It is rumored that some people have seen the officers snipping off their iqamas in front of them.

Meanwhile, a number of private schools across the Kingdom announced holidays on one pretext or the other as many teachers and drivers are not under the sponsorship of schools where they work. A private school teacher said that the fear of being caught and deported has stopped them from going to work.

We regret to inform that because of a major electrical maintenance work, the school will remain closed until further notice. This was a common text message sent by many of the private schools to the guardians of students.

Some private schools assured their staff of all protection while others told the teaching and non-teaching staff not to report for work. A popular private school in Jeddah reportedly bundled out its teaching staff through the back door when the school guard triggered panic about an impending raid.

Principals of some of the private schools told Saudi Gazette that they had to close schools because the pre-school teachers who are under their husbands sponsorships did not report for work fearing punitive action by the Labor Ministry.

Indian Embassy schools are reopening Monday after a two-week break. However, school and embassy officials allayed any fears about inspections or school closure.

I dont think there will be any problem, Surendra Bhagat, Second Secretary, Political and Information at Indian Embassy told Saudi Gazette.

He said Indian Embassy schools have a different status so there is no need for panic. If there are any issues, we will resolve it with the Saudi authorities, he added.

But there were rumors Sunday about Labor Ministry inspectors visiting the Pakistan Embassy school in Jeddah. School and consulate officials, however, categorically denied any such report.

As the panic of possible exodus due to Nitaqat implementation subsides back home, most of the Indian international schools in Jeddah are racing against time to complete legalizing the status of their staffers, including bus drivers, before reopening of schools for the new academic year.

All schools have stepped up procedures to hire as many Saudi teachers and administration staff as possible. At the same time, some school authorities have expressed their apprehensions that a sizable number of teachers, whose procedures of transferring sponsorship are yet to be completed, would fail to show up when the schools reopen.

Speaking to Saudi Gazette, some principals said that they have almost completed the norms and conditions set by the Ministry of Education. Prof. M. Abdul Ali, principal of Al-Noor International School, said that the school has changed its status to green category after completing all the procedures. We have hired nearly one and a half dozens of Saudi staffers, besides hiring teachers under the schools sponsorship, he said, adding that the Nitaqat drive would not affect those living in the Kingdom legally.

Dr. Padma Hariharan, of Novel International School, said that the school has employed eight Saudi teachers and took other measures so as to fulfill the ministrys regulations. She said that some schools had hired earlier highly qualified housewives of expatriates as teachers and provided them with intensive training. These schools are not in a position to complete the transfer of the teachers to their sponsorship. Some of these teachers might not report to duty and this could jeopardize the schools functioning, Hariharan said while pointing out that her school has made no fee hike while some of the schools increased fees exorbitantly for the next academic year.

An administrative officer of a famous international school told Saudi Gazette that they have stepped up procedures to transfer sponsorship of some teachers and drivers and have already issued letters to their sponsors. Many schools are facing the problem of hiring qualified teachers from India because of the high pay and other allowances they are receiving there. With input from Fatima Muhammad, Hassan Cherruppa and S. Athar H. Rizvi


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Re: [www.keralites.net] Gujarat and THE MODI..!!

 

Hi Everybody
I am a Malayalee staying in Gujrat for the last 40 years, fairly well settled running a
travel agency.

I never had any problem, faced no difficulties etc here.

Every body works and make fair amount of money.

Never ever thought of returning to Kerala though I have some property
still there.

Hope things will clear  later.
Kerala is no match for Gujarat in any aspect except showmanship and exhibitionism.

Good luck guys.

Venu


From: kumar nair <supercgo@yahoo.com>
To:
Sent: Saturday, 30 March 2013 1:20 PM
Subject: [www.keralites.net] Gujarat and THE MODI..!!

 
 
The other side is that there is no commu thoughts in Gujarat like in kerala.  There is no bursha , facist or american agenda to pin  point. Other difference is that when a gujarati gets money he multiplys it by starting a small or big business subject to his financial limits. But when a keralite gets money he builts a huge mansion , buys the latest car showing off ( By doing this he is creating oportunity for his near and dear ones to fight for the money he leaves behind after his death ) . Another reason for the keralite to build a house is beacuse of the lack of good people in case he  starts a business. In Gujarat there are plenty of manpower available. Even then due to large opportunities in huge industries comming up in Gujarat , there are thousands of keralites and other south indians working , settled there. You ask the keralites there and they will tell the fact. There are lots of keralites who made it big in Gujarat. The kerala NRI must meet Mr.Modi and discuss the ways for their investments in that state. You have lots of things to learn from Gujarat and Modi.  It is a shame that we tell that we keralites are highly literate and our GDP , per capita income is more than Gujarat etc. and wander to other states for making a living. What kerala does not have ?  It has a big accessable coastline . 3 international airports ( 2 more comming up) , plenty of manpower, water and other sources. Yet our govt is not able to utlise these resources in a proper way to make kerala a prosperous state. Take the case of agriculture. Rice , milk , meat ,vegetables and even textiles is comming from the other states. There is huge demand but no self production. The UDF/LDF ruling in turn must change . A third front must emerge to change the face of kerala.

www.keralites.net


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[www.keralites.net] out pass

 
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[www.keralites.net] The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make Managing Organisational Performance !!

 

Mistake #1: rely just on financial statements
Profit and loss, revenue and expenses these are measures of important things to a business. But they are information that is too little and too late. Too little in the sense that other results matter too, such as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer advocacy. Too late in the sense that by the time you see bad results, the damage is already done. Wouldn't it be better to know that profit was likely to fall before it actually did fall, and in time to prevent it from falling?

Mistake #2: look only at this month, last month, year to date
Most financial performance reports summarise your financial results in four values: 1) actual this month; 2) actual last month; 3) % variance between them; and 4) year to date. Even if you are measuring and monitoring non-financial results, you may still be using this format. It encourages you to react to % variances (differences between this month and last month) which suggest performance has declined such as any % variation greater than 5 or 10 percent (usually arbitrarily set). Do you honestly expect the % variance to always show improvement? And if it doesn't, does that really mean things have gotten bad and you have to fix them? What about the natural and unavoidable variation that affects everything, the fact that no two things are ever exactly alike? Relying on % variations runs a great risk that you are reacting to problems that aren't really there, or not reacting to problems which are really there that you didn't see. Wouldn't you rather have your reports reliably tell you when there really was a problem that needed your attention, instead of wasting your time and effort chasing every single variation?

Mistake #3: set goals without ways to measure and monitor them
Business planning is a process that is well established in most organisations, which means they generally have a set of goals or objectives (sometimes cascaded down through the different management levels of the organisation) . What is interesting though, is that the majority of these goals or objectives are not measured well. Where measures have been nominated for them, they are usually something like this: Implement a customer relationship management system into the organisation by June 20

(for a goal of improving customer loyalty) This is not a measure at all it is an activity. Measures are ongoing feedback of the degree to which something is happening. If this goal were measured well, the measure would be evidence of how much customer loyalty the organisation had, such as tracking repeat business from customers. How will you know if your goals, the changes you want to make in your organisation, are really happening, and that you are not wasting your valuable effort and money, without real feedback?

Mistake #4: use brainstorming (or other poor methods) to select measures
Brainstorming, looking at available data, or adopting other organisations' measures are many of the reasons why we end up with measures that aren't useful and usable. Brainstorming produces too much information and therefore too many measures, it rarely encourages a strong enough focus on the specific goal to be measured, everyone's understanding of the goal is not sufficiently tested, and the bigger picture is not taken into account (such as unintended consequences, relationships to other objectives/goals) . Looking at available data means that important and valuable new data will never be identified and collected, and organisational improvement is constrained by the knowledge you already have. Adopting other organisations' measures, or industry accepted measures, is like adopting their goals, and ignoring the unique strategic direction that sets your organisation apart from the pack. Wouldn't you rather know that the measures you select are the most useful and feasible evidence of your organisation's goals?


Mistake #5: rely on scorecard technology as the performance measure fix
You can (and maybe you did) spend millions of dollars on technology to solve your performance measurement problems. The business intelligence, data mining and 'scorecarding' software available today promises many things like comprehensive business intelligence reporting, award-winning data visualization, and balanced scorecard and score
-
carding and an information flow that transcends organizational silos, diverse computing platforms and niche tools .. and delivers access to the insights that drive shareholder value. Wow! But there's a problem lurking in the shadows of these promises. You still need to be able to clearly articulate what you want to know, what you want to measure and what kinds of signals you need those measures to flag for you. The software is amazing at automating the reporting of the measures to you, but it just won't do the thinking about what it should report to you.

Mistake #6: use tables, instead of graphs, to report performance
Tables are a very common way to present performance measures, no doubt in part a legacy from the original financial reports that management accountants provided (and still provide today) to decision makers. They are familiar, but they are ineffective. Tables encourage you to focus on the points of data, which is the same as not seeing the forest for the trees. As a manager, you aren't just managing performance today or this month. You are managing performance over the medium to long term. And the power to do that well comes from focusing on the patterns in your data, not the points of data themselves. Patterns like gradual changes over time, sudden shifts or abrupt changes through time, events that stand apart from the normal pattern of variation in performance. And graphs are the best way to display patterns.


Mistake #7: fail to identify how performance measures relate to one other
A group of decision makers sit around the meeting room table and one by one they go over the performance measure results. They look at the result, decide if it is good or bad, agree on an action to take, then move on to the next measure. They might as well be having a series of independent discussions, one for each measure. Performance measures might track different parts of the organisation, but because organisations are systems made up of lots of different but very inter-related parts, the measures must be inter-related too. One measure cannot be improved without affecting or changing another area of the organisation. Without knowing how measures relate to one another and using this knowledge to interpret measure results, decision makers will fail to find the real, fundamental causes of performance results.


Mistake #8: exclude staff from performance analysis and improvement
One of the main reasons that staff get cynical about collecting performance data is that they never see any value come from that data. Managers more often than not will sit in their meeting rooms and come up with measures they want and then delegate the job of bringing those measures to life to staff. Staff who weren't involved in the discussion to design those measures, weren't able to get a deeper understanding of why those measures matter, what they really mean, how they will be used, weren't able to contribute their knowledge about the best types of data to use or the availability and integrity of the data required. And usually the same staff producing the measures don't ever get to see how the managers use those measures and what decisions come from them. When people aren't part of the design process of measures, they find it near impossible to feel a sense of ownership of the process to bring those measures to life. When people don't get feedback about how the measures are used, they can do little more than believe they wasted their time and energy.


Mistake #9: collect too much useless data, and not enough relevant data
Data collection is certainly a cost. If it isn't consuming the time of people employed to get the work done, then it is some kind of technological system consuming money. And data is also an asset, part of the structural foundation of organisational knowledge. But too many organisations haven't made the link between the knowledge they need to have and the data they actually collect. They collect data because it has always been collected, or because other organisations collect the same data, or because it is easy to collect, of because someone once needed it for a one-off analysis and so they might as well keep collecting it in case it is needed again. They are overloaded with data, they don't have the data they really need and they are exhausted and cannot cope with the idea of collecting any more data. Performance measures that are well designed are an essential part of streamlining the scope of data collected by your organisation, by linking the knowledge your organisation needs with the data it ought to be collecting.
mistake

Mistake #10: use performance measures to reward and punish people
One practice that a lot of organisations are still doing is using performance measures as the basis for rewarding and punishing people. They are failing to support culture of learning by not tolerating mistakes and focusing on failure. It is very rare that a single person can have complete control over any single area of performance. In organisations of more than 5 or 6 people, the results are undeniably a team's product, not an individual's product. When people are judged by performance measures, they will do what they can to reduce the risk to them of embarrassment, missing a promotion, being disciplined or even given the sack. They will modify or distort the data, they will report the measures in a way that shows a more favourable result (yes - you can lie with statistics), they will not learn about what really drives organisational performance and they will not know how to best invest the organisation's resources to get the best improvements in performance.

M Junaid Tahir
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