Answer for Oral Question PL283

QUESTION

Yang Berhormat Awang Haji Salleh Bostaman bin Haji Zainal Abidin

YANG BERHORMAT AWANG HAJI SALLEH BOSTAMAN BIN HAJI ZAINAL ABIDIN asks the MENTERI DI JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI to state whether the Ministry has a mandatory policy or primary selection mechanism in favour of local workers, as well as how monitoring and redeployment are carried out to protect the continuity of the careers of the local workforce in this sector? Recently, many companies have laid off workers in the oil and gas industry, what is the current policy to ensure that experienced and skilled local workers are prioritised over expatriates in the "right sizing" process?

ANSWER

Yang Berhormat Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri

Yang Berhormat Yang Di-Pertua,

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

Yang Berhormat,

i. Thank you for Yang Berhormat Awang Haji Salleh Bostaman bin Haji Zainal Abidin's concern regarding matters related to the welfare of our local people in the oil and gas sector.

ii. As Kaola explained previously, workforce releases in the upstream oil and gas sector mostly involve contracts that are not renewed or that expire after projects are completed, apart from operational adjustments to ensure companies remain resilient and competitive.

iii. The Department of Energy continuously examines and monitors the welfare of local workers in the oil and gas sector who are affected in the process, in line with existing policies. Among the policies used are the Bruneianisation Directive and the Local Business Development (LBD) Directive, which play an important role in ensuring that priority continues to be given to the involvement and recruitment of local citizens in this sector, while also encouraging the generation of business opportunities for local companies.

iv. To ensure that priority is always given to qualified local workers, the Department of Energy continues to monitor the recruitment of foreign workers in the oil and gas sector through strict screening and vetting of foreign worker permit applications. Every application will be thoroughly examined, including ensuring that the relevant position has been advertised openly and widely to local citizens. Consideration for the recruitment of foreign workers is only given if the expertise requires highly specialised skills and those jobs cannot be filled by locals.

v. In line with this, the Department of Energy also emphasises the need for major operating companies to strengthen succession planning and to provide individual development plans for local workers. This effort aims to close the skills gap, particularly in technical and leadership fields, and subsequently ensure that responsible expat replacement is implemented in an orderly manner and is based on competency and the development of local human resources.

vi. In addition, the Department of Energy works closely with the JobCentre Brunei, the Manpower Planning Office and the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) through an inclusive and collaborative approach for matching job opportunities across sectors, in order to reduce the long-term impact on the local workers involved.

vii. These efforts reflect the Government's continuous commitment to ensuring that local citizens and local companies are given opportunities to progress in the energy sector as the backbone of the Nation's economic development.

Thank you Yang Berhormat Yang Di-Pertua.