Indians help build Cuba hotels

Indians help build Cuba hotels
AAP

French construction group Bouygues is employing more than 100 Indian
labourers to work on a hotel it is building in Cuba, breaking a taboo in
the Communist-run country on hiring foreign labour in order to meet
increased tourism demand.
The Cuban government removed a key barrier to hiring foreign workers
with the passage of a 2014 foreign investment law that authorised
"special regulations" concerning foreign workers under "exceptional
circumstances".
Cuban government officials did not immediately respond to requests for
comment about the influx of foreign workers, several dozen of whom spoke
to Reuters in Havana. But the Bouygues move, which was also confirmed by
a company spokesman, is the first time a firm has bypassed Cuba's
state-run labor halls to hire foreign workers en masse.
For a country struggling to prop up export revenue in the face of low
commodity prices, foreign workers on the Caribbean island signal how
critical tourism is now in Cuba and how market forces are transforming
its once tightly controlled economy.
Already popular as a low-cost beach resort for Europeans and Canadians,
Cuba is seeing a surge in American visitors since the United States and
Cuba announced in December of 2014 that they would work to normalise
relations.
Tourism increased 17 per cent in 2015 and was up more than 11 per cent
through June this year, official data shows. It generated $US2.8 billion
($A3.75 billion) in revenue last year.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit in goods widened by $US1.5 billion last year.
At least three new hotels are under construction in Havana, the first
new five-star hotels to be built there in a number of years. Another
dozen under negotiation with potential investors, according to the Cuban
tourism industry. One reason Bouygues is turning outside of Cuba for
labour is because Cuban skilled tradesmen are opting to work in the
private sector where they can earn much more than from the state.
The Indian tradesmen, who are being housed together east of the capital,
are part of a much broader trend of such workers who emigrate to various
work sites - especially in the Middle East - in search of higher wages
than they can get in India. The practice, however, has not been
widespread in Latin America or the Caribbean.
Bouygues has already brought 200 Indian workers into Cuba and plans to
bring more in the coming months, according to diplomats familiar with
the situation and a Havana-based company employee who asked for
anonymity due to restrictions on talking with the media.
"It is true that the group is bringing in Indian workers trained in
various parts of Bouygues ... throughout the world," a Paris-based
spokesman for the company said.
The Indians would be training local tradesmen in Cuba in addition to
working directly on the projects themselves, he said.
The labourers are working on two hotels in Havana and another at the
Varadero tourism resort, the sources said. While Bouygues is co-managing
the projects, foreign firms are required to partner with state-run
construction companies that have strict limits on how much they can pay
Cubans. They can pay foreign workers more, however.
"The Cuban workers are not paid well so there is little motivation," a
western diplomat familiar with the pay differential said, requesting
anonymity due to diplomatic protocol. "The Indian workers are being paid
around 1,500 Euros a month, more than 10 times what their Cuban
counterparts receive."
A few dozen of the skilled tradesmen, wearing orange jump suits, said
they were happy to be in Cuba for at least a year.
The Indian workers were emerging for lunch from the Manzana de Gomez, an
ornate building being converted into a luxury hotel in downtown Havana.
Inderjeet Singh Chopra, a bearded, slim electrician wearing a turban
that is seldom seen in Havana, said there were more than a hundred of
his countrymen working on the project as electricians, carpenters,
plumbers and masons.
He did not mention training locals.
The Indian workers said they were paid according to their skills, but
would not reveal how much.
"To date their biggest complaint has been that they want some Indian
food and a cook is on the way," the Bouygues source said.
"Yes, that has been a problem. We like spicy food," he said.

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