TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: With uncertainty over immediate resumption of mining operations, the unemployed from the mining sector have shown interest to shift towards the coast and pick up jobs at the beach shacks with the tourism season due to commence shortly.
While many are just looking for manual jobs to get some income to make ends meet, many are exploring options of applying for shack licenses this year.
While speaking to Cruz Cardozo, President of the Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS), Herald has learnt that shack operators have already started receiving calls from unemployed locals in the mining areas of Goa seeking employment in shacks even though working in the tourism area is totally different from working in the mining belt.
Cardozo said that he received calls from some locals from the mining belt in South Goa offering to work as helpers in the shacks that will come up along the Southern coastal belt.
Another shack operator Blaise Mendes from Benaulim said that with the new shack policy which guarantees business for three years, unemployed people from mining areas are exploring options of shifting to the tourism sector.
Even Dilip, a shack operator from North Goa who is in the business for years in Morjim said that this year shack operators will have no problems as far as work force is concerned as labour from mining areas wants to move in due to uncertainty in the mining sector.
Cardozo however said, “There will be many aspiring to get shack licences but will fall in the category of new comers for which only 10 per cent quota has been allotted.”
He said that shack operators with experience will face no threat from the interest shown by many from the mining areas while applying for shack licences. He agreed that this year there will be more work-force from the mining belt who will shift to jobs in shacks.
Shack operators, like the fishing community also need work force and depend on helpers generally engaged from outside Goa.
“As of now we don’t know what the scenario is as far as labour from outside Goa is concerned as they generally come by the end of the month,” said Inacio Fernandes a shack operator from Betalbatim.
Apprehensions are that those from the North-Eastern States may not come in large numbers and the choice may be restricted to those from Nepal and Karnataka. However shack operators have in the recent years been also facing problems of poaching of staff by rival tourism destinations such as Kerala.
“They find our personnel working in shacks experienced enough to work in their hotels,” said Cardozo while throwing light on the problems being faced shack operators on the labour front.
Most of the shack operators also fear that workforce from outside Goa will also demand higher salaries considering that all costs have sky rocketed.
“The salaries may even cross Rs 16,000 to Rs 20,000 this year,” said a shack operator from North Goa who added that till last year the salaries were as much as Rs 12,000 and considered reasonable per head for a staff strength of around 15 to 18 per shack. In such an event, there is likelihood of a large number of mining unemployed getting absorbed at shacks this season possibly guaranteeing employment for a year if not three.
Herald has learnt that shack operators have already started receiving calls from unemployed locals in the mining areas of Goa seeking employment in shacks even though working in the tourism area is totally different from working in the mining belt
