UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

Faculty of Law & Management

FOREIGN LABOUR IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY A CASE STUDY IN A CIVIL ENGINEERING COMPANY SPECIALISING IN TRENCHWORKS

Dissertation submitted as partial fulfilment of requirements leading to the award of a

MASTERS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Akash GURA GOREDO Student ID: 1020488

31 August 2012

Acknowledgement
I wish to put on record my appreciation of Dr Deerajen Ramasawmy for his understanding and patience in reviewing my draft at different stages. I am also grateful to Sotravic Lte and its staff for having been kind enough to spare some time to extract data and provide me with detailed data, often at very short notice, but always with diligence. Mr Ruby Ranglall, Mr Thierry Nadal , Mr Radhakeesoon and Mr Sailesh from Plaines Wilhems site offices were highly collaborative in all respects, as well as Mr Varsally the Site Manager for having provided photographic footage and feedback on preliminary study. At head office, Mr Navin Ghoorbin, Mr Krishan Beessoon and Krishen Ittoo offered invaluable help at various stages of the data analysis. My mentor Mr Jean-Marie Puran was also readily available to offer insightful comments about the financial analysis. Last but not least my heartfelt gratitude goes to my wife Kiran for having been my prime inspiration and unfailing support throughout all the course duration.

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Abstract
The present study focuses on the case of Sotravic Limite, a trenching and pipe works specialist, which banked on a newly awarded large-scale construction project for growth. For this, Sotravic had to hire in sufficient numbers to be able to pursue expansion of its site operations, but despite high unemployment rates in the country, its attempts at attracting and recruiting locally remained unsuccessful and tried to hire migrant workers from a few nearby countries before finally securing a continuous stream of workers from India. This initiative allowed Sotravics construction activities to be pursued at a larger scale. While focussing on growth no study was made to assess whether this venture was worth the effort and if reliance on foreign labour can be sustained. After collating data about site operations over time and analysing these by comparing productivity of local workers to foreign workers, it was found that the latter had higher attendance rates than local counterparts, but that absenteeism among them would increase significantly as soon as they were entitled to paid leaves. At site level, the productivity level of foreign workers was found to be significantly higher than that of local workers, especially in work items that required less intense physical effort such as pipe laying and installation of plastic chambers also, this was achieved by a more intensive use of support resources surrounding their main task. However, local workers showed more dexterity in operating excavation equipment and concreting works, resulting in higher productivity in these work items. It can be concluded from the analysis that it is worthwhile to hire expatriate workers in order to fill a demand gap in the short term and for specific, low-impact tasks such as pipe laying and installation of inspection chambers.

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Table Of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ______________________________________________________________ 2 ABSTRACT _________________________________________________________________________ 3 1 2 INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________ 6 LITERATURE REVIEW__________________________________________________________ 7 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 3 THE PESTEL CONDITIONS ______________________________________________________ 7 THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF EMPLOYING MIGRANT WORKERS ___________ 14 AIM OF PRESENT CASE STUDY __________________________________________________ 16 BACKGROUND: ORGANISATION PROFILE __________________________________________ 17 THE NEED FOR FOREIGN LABOUR _______________________________________________ 17 RECRUITMENT OF FOREIGN LABOUR _____________________________________________ 19 PROBLEM STATEMENT ________________________________________________________ 20 MAIN AIM OF STUDY _________________________________________________________ 20 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES _______________________________________________________ 21 RESEARCH AIMS / QUESTIONS __________________________________________________ 21

METHODOLOGY ______________________________________________________________ 23 3.1 BACKGROUND _______________________________________________________________ 23 3.2 PARAMETERS - TRENCHWORKS _________________________________________________ 24 3.3 PARAMETERS - CONCRETE WORKS _______________________________________________ 26 3.4 CONSTRAINTS _______________________________________________________________ 26 3.5 METHODS AVAILABLE / ENVISAGED ______________________________________________ 29 3.5.1 Attendance _______________________________________________________________ 30 3.5.2 Efficiency and Productivity __________________________________________________ 30 3.5.3 Financial analysis _________________________________________________________ 30 3.5.4 Relative benefits ___________________________________________________________ 31 3.6 DATA SOURCES ______________________________________________________________ 31 3.7 CONSTRAINTS _______________________________________________________________ 31 3.8 RESOURCES _________________________________________________________________ 32

ANALYSIS & FINDINGS ________________________________________________________ 33 4.1 ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY _______________________________________________ 33 4.2 PRODUCTIVITY LEVEL ON TRENCHWORKS _________________________________________ 34 4.2.1 House connections _________________________________________________________ 34
4.2.1.1 4.2.1.2 4.2.1.3 Pipe Works __________________________________________________________________ 34 Inspection Chambers __________________________________________________________ 36 Summary of productivity on House Connections ____________________________________ 36 Excavation __________________________________________________________________ 37

4.2.2

Street Sewers _____________________________________________________________ 37

4.2.2.1

4.2.3 Pipe works _______________________________________________________________ 38 4.2.4 Concrete Works ___________________________________________________________ 39 4.3 FINANCIAL ANALYSIS _________________________________________________________ 39 4.3.1 Total cost of recruiting, employing and retaining ________________________________ 39 4.3.2 Unit costs relating to trenchworks ____________________________________________ 43 5 DISCUSSION___________________________________________________________________ 46 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY _______________________________________________ 46 HOUSE CONNECTION PIPE WORKS _______________________________________________ 46 HOUSE CONNECTION CHAMBERS ________________________________________________ 47 STREET SEWERS _____________________________________________________________ 48
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5.4.1 Excavation _______________________________________________________________ 48 5.4.2 Pipe work ________________________________________________________________ 49 5.5 CONCRETE WORKS ___________________________________________________________ 52 6 7 8 CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS _________________________________________ 53 REFERENCES _________________________________________________________________ 56 APPENDIX CALCULATION RESULTS _________________________________________ 60 8.1 ATTENDANCE _______________________________________________________________ 60 8.2 HOUSE CONNECTION TRENCH WORKS ____________________________________________ 60 8.2.1 110mm diameter uPVC pipes ________________________________________________ 60 8.2.2 160mm diameter uPVC pipes ________________________________________________ 62 8.2.3 House connections: pipes of all diameters ______________________________________ 64 8.2.4 Plastic IC 450mm diameter ________________________________________________ 65 8.2.5 Plastic IC 600mm diameter ________________________________________________ 67 8.2.6 Pre-Cast Reinforced Concrete IC 450mm diameter _____________________________ 68 8.2.7 Pre-Cast Reinforced Concrete IC 800mm diameter _____________________________ 69 8.3 STREET SEWER TRENCH WORKS ________________________________________________ 69 8.3.1 Excavation effect of road width _____________________________________________ 70 8.3.2 Excavation effect of trench depth ____________________________________________ 70 8.3.3 Pipe works _______________________________________________________________ 78 8.4 CONCRETE WORKS ___________________________________________________________ 79 9 10 11 ANNEX PHOTOGRAPHS ______________________________________________________ 82 ANNEX PLANNING GANTT CHART ___________________________________________ 83 ANNEX PROGRESS LOG ______________________________________________________ 85

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1 Introduction
The presence of foreign labourers has become a common feature in local manufacturing companies since the early 1990s. However, this trend has been observed only recently in the construction industry. Studies carried out until now have attributed the increase in number of foreigners to the lack of local people both in numbers and with adequate skill levels, while paradoxically, unemployment has been increasing. The trend in importing labour started in the textile and jewellery industry as from the mid-1980s and propagated to other sectors of the economy together with the growth of the economy. The construction sector also jumped the bandwagon as from late 1990s and since then, the number of expatriate manual labour has kept increasing. Sotravic Limite is one of such construction companies which have recourse to the use of migrant workers for sustaining their business activities and pursuing their aims of expansion. Until 2008, it had managed successfully to rely on local labour only. Retention and recruitment of skilled labour had been achieved by means of attractive incentive schemes for both its internal labour force and its usual subcontractors. This strategy had worked until then due to the relatively low volume of work which implied that its recruitment effort for hiring additional labour for supplementing its core labour did not require intensive means. However, due to a drastic increase in work volumes since 2009, Sotravic has been constrained by an acute shortage in labour force and has had to recruit massively from abroad. The present study will aim at analysing productivity levels of migrant workers and to determine whether the endeavour of hiring them is worthwhile, while taking due consideration of the total costs of retaining them in employment over the limited time frame available for each worker in Mauritius.

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2 Literature Review
2.1 The PESTEL conditions

Migration for employment has been an increasingly important global phenomenon. A study conducted on behalf of the World Bank (Ratha, et al, 2010) estimated the volume of remittances sent back home by the 215 million of migrant workers worldwide to USD 325 billion in 2010 (a 250% increase in eight years, from USD 130 billion in 2002) which is larger in volume than official aid flows and amounts up to 10% of the GDP of some developing countries. This trend may be explained by analysing the political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal factors. From the political point of view, the gradual but steady dismantling of trade barriers through globalisation has encouraged the settlement of businesses beyond their homeland in a view of minimising costs and thereby maximise profits (Hill, 2011). This rationale prompted businesses to move geographically towards resources with the lowest cost. When the Multifibre Agreement came into force allowing products

manufactured in the ACP countries to benefit from preferential access to European markets numerous manufacturing companies migrated from Hong Kong to Mauritius in the late 1970s. At the time Mauritius faced very high unemployment rates and the political climate was unstable. With the advent of a relatively more stable government in the aftermath of the 1983 elections however, new momentum was given to the industrialisation of the country. Manufacturing industries were given a number of incentives, mainly of fiscal nature, among which a 10-year tax holiday and unhindered repatriation of profits, which were the principal motives to foreign investors to invest massively in Mauritius. This resulted in an economic boom in the early 1980s. As a consequence of investment in industrial production the local unemployment rates (Kowlessur, 2004, citing Alter, 1991) and unemployment fell steadily from above 10% in the early 1980s to a historic low of 1.6% in 1994 (Mootyen, 1995). The presence of foreign labour in the Mauritian economy dates back to this period. There was labour with sufficient skill levels and in sufficient quantity as to satisfy the demand pull exerted by the growing Mauritian manufacturing industry. However,

growth in manufacturing companies was constrained by a lack of manpower with more advanced skills and in sufficient numbers (Kowlessur, 2004) as the economy and demand grew in sophistication. Because of the gap in skill level and quantity local

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manufacturing companies resorted to hiring migrant workers.

This trend would

principally supply the growing demand for highly skilled labour in the textile sector. In 1989, the Ministry of Employment issued 1,800 work permits. The trend has increased in pace over the recent years, as illustrated below, and the total foreign labour force reached 33,000 as at January 2011 (The Independent Daily, 2011).
Foreign workers employed in large establishments
35,000

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Figure 1: Number of foreign workers employed in Mauritian large firms (Data: 1990 - 2010: Statistics Mauritius; 2011: The Independent Daily (2011))

This sustained growth in demand for foreign labour has not always been due to lack of lack of local labour. Indeed, though unemployment fell to record lows (less than 2%) in the mid-1990s, it fluctuated widely in the following decade and rose again to 6.5% in 2011.

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10.0

9.6
9.0 8.4 8.0 9.1 8.9

9.7

Unemployment rate, %
8.8 8.5 7.9 Inflation rate, %

7.7
7.2 7.2 7.3

7.8

7.0
6.5 6.0
%

5.0

4.7

4.0

3.9
3.0 2.5 2.0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2.9

Figure 2: Unemployment rate and Inflation rate 2006 - 2011 (Statistics Mauritius, 2011)

Mootyen (1995) found that importing labour in the construction sector was justified in the mid-1990s: while acutely lacking enough local labour, foreign workers were generally more efficient than local workers. At the same level of production,

Mauritians received between 60% and 133% more than Indians receiving legal wage rate this, despite the extra Rs45 daily meal allowance above all the mandatory per capita guarantees, return air tickets, and other associated indirect costs. The workers that are imported into Mauritius fall under Stalkers (2004: pp 4) category of Contract Workers - people who are admitted on the understanding that they will work for a limited period, whose priorities are different from those of settlers, professionals, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers. This was confirmed by study conducted by the Mauritius Research Council Industrial Strategies: A Study of Gender, Migrant Labour in the EPZ (1999) which showed that most migrant workers coming in Mauritius (mainly from China, India, Bangladesh Sri Lanka and Madagascar until 2010 (Koonjee, 2010)) indicated that their prime motivation was that their income so low in their homeland (Ramchurn, 2004) that they relied on their expectation of a higher salary abroad (McKenzie, Gibson & Stillman, 2007) for sending remittances
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back to their families in the hope will improve their living conditions (Shaw / World Bank, 2007).. Shortly after the textile industry had experienced rapid expansion in the mid to late 1980s there was a spill-over effect to other sectors of the economy, and the construction industry was in turn facing similar pressures to deliver the necessary infrastructure over tight deadlines. This surge in demand for specialised labour prompted local companies to turn to foreign labourers despite the surge in labour costs that was anticipated from similar difficulties faced by the textile industry in the mid1990s (Coonjan, 1996). At the same time however, Mauritius accepted foreign

concessionary loans which implied that only foreign construction companies could to execute public projects financed by their home countries. These contractors rapidly settled in the local business environment and secured incorporation at the Registrar of Companies. This trend signalled to local construction companies of higher opportunities for large projects in the future, but only if they could compete with these foreign contractors which practiced notoriously low wages. The comparison with Mauritian workers soon became widespread: Mauritian construction companies started hiring Chinese workers as from 2001, and their numbers increased swiftly to reach up to more than half of the total manual workforce in some local companies which were fuelled by the perception that foreign workers were more productive than their Mauritian counterparts on construction sites. The recourse to migrant workers often been held as an economic imperative (Naiko, 2006), whereby the competitiveness of the local manufacturing industry has been reliant on the input of foreign workers for higher productivity and attendance even during local holidays. That study highlighted that local employers were prone to blame Mauritian workers for high absenteeism, reluctance to match the pace of these foreigners, overtime work and shift hours, but none commented on Mauritians experiences of unfavourable working conditions, unfairly low wage rates and low motivation from the absence of scope for advancement. On the legal aspect, driven by Governments strict rotation policy to avert settling of migrant workers (like migrants in European countries in the 1960s (Shaw, 2007) there are a number of legal pre-requisites to be fulfilled before work permits are delivered by the Ministry of Labour for hiring migrant workers. These requirements have been laid out in relation to the following legislation and conventions:
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The Constitution The Constitution, held as the Supreme law of the land, guarantees to every individual in sections 3 and 13 the freedom of expression, of assembly, of conscience, and association without any discrimination on the basis of sex, age, place of origin, political opinion, colour, creed, race or sexual inclination. By virtue of these sections, migrant workers are to be treated on par with local workers and therefore have equal rights to form associations or trade unions. In practice however, most employment contracts signed by the migrant workers are conditional upon their refraining from engaging in collective bargaining. Section 6 of the Constitution also protects individuals in Mauritius from slavery and forced labour. However, all these liberties are conditional to these migrant workers not settling down in Mauritius and them returning to their home country after the fulfilment or expiry of their employment contract.

The Recruitment of Workers Act 1993 The license to recruit abroad is subject to an application made to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour (Employment Division), following which a return has to be submitted regularly every 4 months on the status of the migrant workers so recruited. Originals of the work contract also have to be submitted in triplicate for vetting by the Ministry. For the employment contract to be valid and legally binding, the Code Civil Mauricien (Articles 3 and 1101) requires that both parties must be capable (of age and mental fitness), have an unambiguous and legal object, have an unambiguous consideration (some form of compensation which in our case implies a salary), and consent between parties (Article 6 of the Code Civil). Section 6 of the Recruitment of Workers Act further requires that All expenses incurred in connection with the recruitment of a worker shall be borne by the Employer or the licensee. This implies that all expenditure, including license fees, legal fees, scouting, detection, selection, recruitment, air fares, food,

accommodation, commuting, living expenses, repatriation costs and expenditures relating to burial in case of demise in Mauritius, to be paid for by the company employing the migrant worker.

The Non-citizen (Employment Restriction) Act 1973

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Section 3 (1) of this regulation forbids a non-citizen from obtaining a gainful occupation in Mauritius unless he holds a valid work permit as delivered by the Ministry of Labour. The work permit is delivered only to a company making a formal request for hiring migrant workers, but not to any recruiting agency. The work permit, if the request meets the Ministrys approval, however requires a guarantee of Rs 15,000 for a period not exceeding three years and the nontransferable renewal (i.e., a migrant worker cannot be transferred to another employer after renewing his work permit) of one year only for Rs 5,000 and the associated work permit entails a processing fee of Rs 500 per worker. The Ministry strictly enforces the 1:3 rule, which requires that the company is allowed a maximum of 25% of foreigners on a companys payroll. The Ministry also regularly inspects the amenities provided for migrant workers for ensuring compliance with sanitary and fire safety regulations. Additionally, the Ministry checks on the compliance of other work-related regulations, such as those under the Labour Act (1975) and the End of Year Gratuity Act, in order to ensure that migrant workers are treated equitably as per law. One means of verifying this is by the enforcement of a rule requiring the submission of one original of the employment contract when processing work permits.

The Labour Act 1975, The Industrial Expansion Act 1993 The Labour Act serves as basis for ensuring the upholding of basic human rights in the relationship binding employees and employers, and defines among others, the number of days of local leaves and sick leaves to which a worker is entitled. It also defines a working week as not exceeding 6 days per calendar week, 8 hours per day (excluding meal and tea time), and any work day as more than 5 hours per day, and the normal working time of 45 hours per week. Overtime hours and break hours are also identified under the Labour Act. However, the Industrial Expansion Act allows employers to make workers stay for an additional 10 hours per week without their agreement. It must be noted that expatriate workers become subject to mandatory contributions such as EWF (Employee Welfare Fund), NPF (National Pension Fund) and NSF (National Solidarity Fund) only if they remain in employment beyond 1 year.

The Occupational Safety, Health and Welfare Act 1988

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Under this Act, an employer has to employ a dedicated Health and Safety Officer whenever there are more than 100 employees on the companys payroll. This act requires new recruits, especially migrant workers, to undergo a medical check up including a screening for HIV before being granted a clearance for entering Mauritius.

Other conventions and protocols ratified by the State of Mauritius o Mauritius is member to the International Labour Office (ILO) since 1969, by virtue of which Mauritius is bound to ratify and enforce all of its 182 conventions. To date however, Mauritius ratified only 38 of them and only 29 are enforced. o The UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families is a framework addressing the numerous problems faced by migrant workers worldwide and acknowledges their contribution to the economies where they offer their skills. This convention ensures to migrant workers judicial redress in case their rights as workers have been violated. o Under Article 5 and Article 6 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, slavery and slave trade are prohibited and forbids the use of torture, cruelty, inhumane punishment and degrading treatment unto all people, including migrant workers. The other Articles forbid abuse in any kind, exploitation and discriminatory treatment in host countries.

Public Procurement Act The aim of the Public Procurement Act is to provide an incentive to the construction industry for employing a maximum number of Mauritians on their payroll. The Act prescribes that the tenders submitted by contractors be given a degree of preference (called Margin of Preference or Domestic Preference) when either o the Mauritian contractor has more than 85% Mauritian nationals in its workforce o in case of an international joint venture with Mauritian partner, the Mauritian contractor has more than 85% Mauritian nationals in its workforce and the international partner employs at least 15% of Mauritian nationals
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o In case of sole international contractor or an international joint venture without any Mauritian involvement, at least 15% of Mauritian nationals on their payroll. Incidentally, Mauritian contractors who choose to employ migrant workers up to the legal limit (following the 1:3 rule, as per the Non-citizen (Employment Restriction) Act 1973) find themselves ineligible for Domestic Preference, but yet have remained competitive on most local tenders so far (PPO, 2006). However, the presence of Chinese contracting heavyweights such as Sinohydro since 2009 is causing a significant impact on the local construction industry: they are acquiring most major publicly floated construction projects as their tenders are about 35% lower than local companies, which therefore have to find new ways of addressing this form of competition.

2.2

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Employing Migrant Workers

In a study focussing on Chinese workers on a building construction site, Putty (2008) had established that the overall performance of Chinese compared closely to that of Mauritian workers. His study showed that Chinese workers had higher levels of communication and manual dexterity skill compared with their Mauritian counterparts. These were found to be due to better training received in their early years in the trade, and that they possessed higher ability to cope with stress. The Chinese workers also showed better assiduity (absenteeism being very low to nil) and responded better to incentives than Mauritians. The latter however equalled the Chinese on cooperation skills level in specific tasks, and even scored better on intelligence and decision-making processes. Other parameters, except for creativity in problem-solving, were not

statistically significant for a clear-cut case in favour of either foreigners or locals. Finally, absence rate was significantly much higher among Mauritians than Chinese during the 3-month long investigation. This study unfortunately did not consider the costs aspect at all and in the absence of which the economic worth of employing foreigners could not be established. At this level, one may infer that the higher availability of unemployed people should have countered the need for importing labour. Therefore there are new parameters that explain why the trend in increased dependence on foreign labour was not reversed. Ramdoo (2005, as quoted in Mungroosing, 2007) explains this as follows: local
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workers consider construction employment unattractive, on account of its low salary and high insecurity. Hein (2004) identified that local employers found the following traits to be missing from Mauritians as compared to foreign workers who were praised for: High motivation to work Low absenteeism Eagerness to do overtime Availability for night shifts

In the same vein, Mootyen (1995) recorded the submissive nature of foreign labour as regards local employers perception of how expatriates responded to their instructions. This study was probably hinting towards the power distance cultural dimension referred to by Hosftede (Armstrong, 1928) whereby these expatriates were brought up in a culture that tended to have higher acceptance levels of hierarchys imposing style of giving instructions. This a confirmation, as stated by Mungroosingh (2007), of a previous University of Mauritius survey whereby it was found that local Mauritians were reluctant to take up 3D jobs (Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult). Combined to the growing reluctance to unattractive job settings, the World Bank (2010) accurately predicted that the population growth would not be able to meet the demand for economic growth as ambitioned by the country. Naiko (2006) resisted the anti-Mauritian bias that seem to be established since 1990, arguing that employers too had their share in repelling potential local workers by a combination of unfavourable working conditions, meagre wages, abuse of compulsory overtime, ignorance of family/social commitments, and lack of scope for advancement. However, retention rates among migrant workers remained very low because the economic advantage of having imported migrant workers was short-lived. Advantages that could have arisen from the renewal of their employment contract (direct investment costs of guarantees, air tickets and training costs through initial learning process) were thwarted by the necessity to send them back to their homeland due to their tendency to Indian workers tended to pick up bad habits from their Mauritian counterparts(Mootyen, 1995): once acquainted with local customs and the local lingua franca from their colleagues (Dabeedial, R; 2001) Indians started bargaining for
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higher wages and absconding from work, thereby off-setting the gains that their employers had anticipated to derive from their presence unfortunately, these claims were not quantified precisely. Yet, they provide a serious an indication of the high cost of employing foreign labour at the time. This high cost was later confirmed whereby it was found that compared to annual inflation rate, workers have received much more that [sic] they should get (Seebun, 1996). The abnormally high wage rates prevailing in the construction industry (which Poonie (1996) found to be well above Remuneration Orders), especially for specialist trades (principally masons, carpenters and tilers) was also found to be driven by the high demand in times of chronic shortage of skilled workmen on the local market. This study unfortunately did not weigh in the effect of imported labour on the overall cost of employing manual workers in the industry. Paradoxically, Naiko (2006) found that migrant workers were paid a basic salary set at the minimum legal rate, but Mauritian workers were actually paid at a much higher rate through individual bargaining.

2.3

Aim of Present Case Study

The complex infrastructure projects built by Mauritian workers in the past without any need for foreign input indicates that the skill level of Mauritians must have been sufficiently high as to deliver, but so far, studies have focussed narrowly on the engineering efficiency / productivity of foreign workers (Putty, 2008), viewed the problems encountered by foreign workers from an employers perspective with no supporting data (Mootyen, 1995) considered the effect of importing manpower from the macro-economic perspective only (Mungroosingh, 2007 and Kowlessur, 2004). Therefore, there is a need to verify the claim that the use of foreign workers translated in higher profitability or value-for-money for local construction companies. Emphasis has so far been on only the productivity of migrant workers their immediate availability and their reliability has been assumed to be a safe indication of the economic worth of the choice while the total cost of employing the foreign labour has been ignored. This is the gap what the present case study aims at filling.

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Additionally there is anecdotal evidence (from conversations with Sotravic site management representatives) that Mauritian workers are not productive, prone to absenteeism, especially before or after public holidays. Some studies have confirmed that this trend both in textile industry (Mootyen, 1995; Kowlessur, 2004; Mugroosingh, 2007) and in one case of a building construction company (Putty, 2008). The present study will provide the opportunity to check whether this trend is confirmed or not in the civil engineering construction company.

2.4

Background: Organisation Profile

Sotravic Lte is a wholly owned Mauritian civil engineering company specialising in the construction of piping systems including sewerage, potable water supply and irrigation networks. It is registered by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure as a Grade A Trenchworks contractor since 1992. It has successfully diversified into other environmental / civil engineering markets such as dam rehabilitation/engineering, canal and conduit construction, landfill construction and management and solid waste management. Sotravic relies almost exclusively on public tenders (or bids) for engineering construction projects floated by various departments acting under ministries of the Government of Mauritius. These projects are normally awarded to the lowest bidder, subject to the bidder meeting specific pass/fail (mostly technical and financial, and often on staffing requirements) criteria. Sotravic has a specific tendering department which ensures that the technical, financial and staffing requirements of the bids it submits are always met with, and leaving the forces of the market (competitors normally) to decide if which bid is the lowest. Often, Sotravic was not the lowest bidder, but has ended up being awarded a contract after all its competitors failed one or more qualifying criteria set in the tender documents. This is important to note as it would ultimately have a major influence the decision hire foreign workers.

2.5

The Need for Foreign Labour

As from 2007, the situation had completely changed: Sotravic faced an acute shortage of labour when it was awarded contracts which were beyond its capacity. Tenders were floated by the Government of Mauritius for three large-scale projects (Lot 1A, Lot 1B
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and Lot 2) for constructing a full-fledged .sewerage system covering one third of the Plaines Wilhems district, most populous district of Mauritius with about 235,000 inhabitants (WMA, 2003). After opening of the bids for these projects, Sotravic was found to have submitted the lowest bids in two of these tenders: Lot 2 (representing Rs 2.3 billion, covering the Quatre Bornes area) and Lot 1B (representing Rs 1.3 billion, covering the Roches Brunes / Mont Roches area), which were awarded in February 2008 and November 2008 respectively. Sotravic was not the lowest tendered on the Lot 1A portion of the Plaines Wilhems Project, but after the evaluation of bids on technical and financial merits, Sotravic was found to be the lowest bidder to have fulfilled all pass/fail criteria for award of the Lot 1A contract (representing Rs 3.1 billion, covering the Quatre Bornes / Palma / Beaux Songes area). This implied that all three of the Plaines Wilhems lots had been awarded to Sotravic, which represented an aggregated work value of Rs 5 billion to be completed within the next 5 years. An exponential increase in turnover from the yearly Rs 0.6 billion only to over Rs 1.2 billion. The eventual award of all the three Plaines Wilhems lots projects represented an amount of work that was not expected at the time of tendering: it had a major implication over the staffing requirements. The existing 500-strong manual labour force was suited for projects of the scale of about Rs 100 million per year (about 10km per year) while the Plaines Wilhems projects required completion of about 125km of pipelines over 5 yeears, and would be clearly stretched for absorbing the work volume required for completing. It was estimated at the time that an additional number of 300 skilled tradesmen principally breakermen, pipe layers, masons and helpers would be needed for driving these massive projects. In the meantime, the first Plaines Wilhems project, Contract Lot 2 87 km of street sewers and 13,000 house connections worth Rs 2.3 billion had been awarded to Sotravic in December 2007. After mobilisation to site for pre-construction surveys for hydraulic design, physical construction was due to start in August 2008 with Sotravics core teams made up of local tradesmen itself. Their contribution would be insufficient as progress rates would ramp up the learning curve over time, requiring additional manhours for sustaining the required progress rates.

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The initial response to this situation was to recruit massively on the local labour market. Since it was known at the time that unemployment was on the rise it was assumed that Sotravics labour requirements would be satisfied locally itself. The first initiative was to launch an advertising campaign whereby posters were affixed in all major residential areas of the country, promoting above-average daily wages. At the time, a breakerman would earn on average Rs500 per day, while Sotravic offered Rs650 per day. This poster campaign started in March 2008 lasted for 2 months and attracted 103 people, out of which only 10 are still in employment to date. The next initiative was to advertise through the television programme called TlPlus which was broadcasted at high-audience time-slots (at 19:23on week-days just before the French news bulletin on the first channel, and at 11:42 on the following day just before the mid-day French news bulletin), for airing regularly twice a day during weekdays May 2008. 274 applicants called for an interview and 240 showed up for the interview, out of which only 18 are still in employment to date. The results of the poster campaign and TV campaigns are summarised below
Number of Respondents Showed up for Showed up interview for work 76 43

Advertisement mode

Posters for 2 months TV programme for 1 274 240 81 18 month Table 1: Summary of advertisement campaign for recruiting additional skilled labourers locally (source: Sotravic HR Dept, 2008)

Called for interview 103

Still employed after 12 months 10

The turnover rate was about 75% and was too high to continue relying on local recruitment. 2.6 Recruitment of Foreign Labour

The problem of low retention rate was tackled initially by hiring people from Rodrigues Island. After advertisement in newspapers, a first cohort of 94 workers from Rodrigues reached Mauritius in March 2008 on a trial basis for a renewable contract of 6 months.. However, after training was given to them and despite being commended by site management for their positive attitude to work all of these new recruits from Rodrigues opted not to renew their contract. The last option therefore remaining was recruitment from foreign countries: China was considered as difficult owing to the language barrier and the rarity of local interpreters that would be readily available for working as intermediaries between site management
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and work-front activities. At the time Sotravic management saw India as a logical choice due to the perception that Indian workers had a shared ancestry with a large fraction of Mauritians. The first cohort of Indian workers recruited arrived in Mauritius in October 2009, and it was mobilised to a small site as part of their training. Since then, more Indians we recruited for working on Sotravics sites until they now form about 21% of the total workforce. They are principally mobilised to Sotravics Plaines Wilhems sites where most of the workload was concentrated from 2008 to now. As these sites are nearing completion, it is now time to choose between keeping the Indian teams in employment for supplying to future construction sites on future construction projects which Sotravic is vying to acquire, or to allow these expatriates to return home and to turn back to hiring Mauritians but with a different approach. The present study focuses on the evaluation of the contribution of these foreign workers to Sotravic.

2.7

Problem Statement

Filling in vacancies on some major projects is a contractual obligation to clients for ensuring that the execution process is completed on time. However it is also important to shift focus from only filling a gap and to evaluate the merits of employing expatriates. To quantify advantages and disadvantages of employing foreign workers for performing trenchworks, it is required to examine the cost of employing foreign workers (said to be prohibitively high) and to identify how Sotravic derives economic advantage, albeit sustainable, from the venture, if any. It is also an opportunity to assess whether local labour force can be relied upon for meeting challenges represented by the future large-scale projects.

2.8

Main Aim of Study

It is required to determine by how much and how far Sotravic has benefitted, if any, from employing guest workers from India, and how they compare with their Mauritian counterparts after some three years performing trench works in the same conditions.

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2.9

Research Objectives

The present study aims at comparing foreigners workers to their Mauritian counterparts on the following aspects Attendance and punctuality: to assess the respective absenteeism levels of local and foreign labour and to compare their levels Productivity level on trenchworks: to analyse the respective levels of output in given conditions and to compare local workers with their foreign counterparts Unit cost of producing these items of trenchworks: excavation works, concrete works and reinstatement: to determine the elements of cost involved in producing a typical unit of work Total cost of performing work in similar conditions: the analyse the influence of fixed and variable costs on the total cost of a typical work unit

2.10 Research Aims / Questions The issues to be addressed for achieving the research objectives are as follows: Attendance and punctuality o To analyse and compare attendance and punctuality of Mauritian and foreign workers: effect of public holidays and length of service on attendance levels. o To determine the causes that explain the differences, if any o Does attendance and punctuality affect the costs of work units, and how? o Does the availability of local leaves after remaining more that 1 year in employment have any effect on the punctuality / attendance level of expatriate workers?

Productivity level on trenchworks o To analyse and compare productivity level between foreigners and Mauritians o To determine the causes that explain the differences, if any o Does productivity level have any impact on the cost of work units, and to what level?

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Unit cost of producing trenchworks: excavation works, concrete works and reinstatement. Unit costs are defined as the cost of doing one unit of a job item. The unit cost may also be converted in a number of man-hours needed to complete the same unit of job item, and gives an indication of the time required for completing a series of similar job items. These unit costs are also essential in the estimating process as they are used as basis for forecasting the overall cost and duration of a project. In our case: o To analyse and compare unit costs of producing these specific elements of trenchworks by foreigners and Mauritians o To identify the causes that explains the differences, if any. o To determine the extra over costs of employing a foreigner, for each specific element of trenchworks

Total cost of performing work in similar conditions o To quantify the impact fixed and variable costs total extra cost of employing foreigners over Mauritians at same conditions

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3 Methodology
3.1 Background

A sewer network as built in the Mauritian context uses gravity to drain wastewater outlets of houses and businesses. The wastewater outlets usually consist of black water outlets (toilets) and grey water outlets (kitchen and lavatory sinks, shower/bath tub and other soapy water outlets). Black water outlets are normally connected as near to a sewer main as possible, while grey water outlets are made to pass through a separation chamber (known as a gully trap in order to prevent floating matter and/or sinkable objects from entering the network as they are principal sources of obstruction. These wastewater outlets are laid at the minimum gradient possible in order to ensure that the solid matter they contain are conveyed at the minimum fluid velocity possible which will ensure turbulent enough flow also known as self-cleansing velocity. The additional feature of these pipes is that they may be buried at shallow depths (not exceeding 1.5m) they generally do not sustain major traffic loads they are protected in concrete in case they cross parking / garage spaces. However, in order to ensure minimal problems during its service life, the house connection pipeline (like all sewers) is laid in straight sections only, i.e., no horizontal curves are allowed in any pipe section. Obstructions are circumvented by means of straight sections of pipeline connected by inspection chambers which offer the possibility of introducing a bend in a pipe section while giving access to service personnel in case of problems.

Figure 3: Plastic inspection chamber with live house connection

Figure 4: Gully trap freshly concreted

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The wastewater outlets are routed to collectors located in the frontage of individual properties (this is so as to minimise confrontation between owners of neighbouring / adjoining properties) by means of laterals interconnected with inspection chambers which drain into street sewers. The street sewers are also laid at a self-cleansing gradient, but given that topography may not be uniform, they have to be laid deep enough in order to be able to offer a drainage path to all house connections which drain into it. This means that the depth of the street sewer is governed by the deepest house connection available in that street. Similar to house connection pipes, maintenance is made possible by the introduction of inspection chambers (but of larger dimensions, and are called manholes) at regular intervals whereby service personnel can gain access to the pipeline in order to attend to operational problems. The street sewers are made to drain into collector and trunk mains of large diameters (usually above 250mm), while house connections seldom exceed 160mm in diameter. These diameters are chosen in order to cater for flows anticipated during the service life of the sewers and govern the width of the trench that will enable practical and safe working procedures.

3.2

Parameters - Trenchworks

Measuring a quantity produced by one worker per day is not feasible as workers are not isolated on a construction site. They work in teams, where specialised tasks forming part of the work item are attributed to members of the teams, and the team-members usually swap between their roles in order to adapt to new situations that prevail as and when required. For example, a pipe laying team consists of one or two pipe layers assisted by a number of apprentices and helpers. These apprentices and helpers will normally be attributed tasks that are apparently unrelated to pipe laying such checking alignment in the trench, correcting bedding levels in the trench, lifting of pipes, transporting them near the work front, lowering them into the trench, placing them in the alignment, handling of and preparing pipe lubricant, applying lubricant to pipe sockets, handling abutting (pushing of pipe spigot end into the socket of the previously laid pipe) tools and holding ranging rods for checking level. The pipe layer has the responsibility of placing the pipes in alignment and effecting the connection into the socket of the previously laid pipe, with the assistance of the apprentices. Therefore, the task of pipe laying cannot be attributed to only one worker but to a team, and any pipe
~ 24 ~

section laid is the outcome of a combined number of man-hours. The total quantity of pipe laid during the day is therefore the outcome of the useful man-hours contributing to completing the pipe section assigned to them. This is common to pipes laid for street sewers (the collectors and mains) and house connections (the ones branching off the collectors and main sewers laid along streets).

Figure 5: Trench excavation by hydraulic excavator

Figure 6: Pipe laying for street sewer

Figure 7: Street sewer with installed manhole made of pre-cast elements

However, pipe laying can be performed on a stretch only after excavation is completed on that stretch. Often, excavation is the critical component of the works: it is the pace of completing this activity alone which determines the pace at which all other activities will be attended. Excavation is principally carried out by heavy excavation equipment wherever possible, i.e., wherever there is sufficient space to accommodate the width of the equipment
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3.3

Parameters - Concrete works

There is a large variety of concrete works undertaken in pipe laying networks. These activities are not critical to overall progress but are considered important as their quality determines whether or not the work items to which they are associated can be handed over to the client and thereby be considered in the monthly statement to be sent to the client for payment.

Figure 8: Toilet outlet connected to plastic IC

Figure 9: From background to foreground: toilet outlet connected to plastic IC (with open manhole cover), which is connected to the pre-cast concrete IC. All flooring in concrete in progress

For example, a house connection is considered completed only when the toilet becomes live, i.e., when it can be flushed into the sewer line. This can be possible only when the pipe work and the manholes and ICs have been correctly made. 3.4 Constraints

The laying of sewer pipes is however subject to many parameters, some of which are of administrative nature, others being purely technical: the availability of permissions for digging out trenches from authorities, the availability of wayleaves from inhabitants, are typical examples of administrative constraints that can impact the progress rates of pipe laying. The purely technical constraints emerge from the conditions in which the trench has been excavated such as: road width: the narrower the road, the more difficult it is to excavate (reduced turning radius for excavation equipment), decreased space on the side of the trench for stacking materials and working space for workers for handling pipes, tools and materials.
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Nature of soil layers: trenches excavated in rock take more time but their internal faces do not crumble and obstruct the trench during laying of pipes, while trenches excavated in soil may crumble when their internal faces start to dry out upon exposure, or worse, when rain falls and wets the soil beyond their absorptive capacity.

Presence of buried obstructions: this is a very common problem encountered in urbanised areas, where there are a number of existing services like telephone cables, electrical wiring, and potable water lines are encountered while digging the trench along the intended pipe alignment. This poses a difficulty to excavators first, as the existing underground services may get damaged when they are not shown on drawings, and not marked according to standards. At a second level, these existing services may have been embedded in friable material which crumbles down into the freshly prepared trench during and after excavation. The added precautions (in the form of securing the existing services, more stringent control over movement of equipment and material handling procedures inside the trench, added care when manoeuvring manned equipment) to be taken by both equipment operators and direct labour for trenchworks tends to reduce their overall output.

Figure 10: Difficulties impeding on trench work progress: obstruction posed by uncharted buried ducts and presence of high groundwater level

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Other underground difficulties: the presence of roots and / or existing cess pits near a freshly excavated trench implies that foul water will seep into the freshly excavated trench. Often, the effects of this seepage have to be controlled by pumping, and the presence of the pump itself represents a hindrance to movement of people, materials and equipment.

The study will rely on the availability of secondary data compiled routinely for the operation of selected departments operating within Sotravic, namely the Payroll Department, and the Site Quantity Surveying Department. The Payroll Department is responsible for compiling attendance records by logging thumbprint data taken from all sites and offices run by Sotravic. These records cover the whole of the cohort of foreign workers as well as all local employees. The Site Quantity Surveying Department operates on all active construction sites run by Sotravic. This department is responsible for compiling data logged by direct work front supervisors about the quantity of resources (human and mechanical) and materials used for effecting site operations and determining the amounts to be paid to employees, subcontractors and suppliers from the quantities of work handled for pre-determined periods, usually fortnights (two-week periods). The QS Department also uses the data logged by supervisors to compile the list of quantities of work completed for any given month for submitting to the client, who uses this monthly statement of work as basis for processing payment to Sotravic. The data logged by supervisors and compiled by the QS department is collected through General Foremen who is responsible for checking on consistency and freedom from errors in measurement after initial vetting by the supervisor himself. The QS Department then checks for overlapping with previous work in progress or left unattended while waiting for engineers instructions or for obstructions to be removed. Following vetting by the QS department, elements of pay are calculated on a piecework basis by multiplying the number of units completed for the period with the established piecework rates. However, it may happen that piecework rates alone do not exceed the normal salary level if the operative had been working on a daily wage basis. In such a case, the normal practice is to pay the worker his normal daily wage in order to avert him being penalised and in so doing prevent any negative effect on worker morale.

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3.5

Methods available / envisaged

The present study initially proposed to take sample measurements of construction activities on site. Upon the preliminary studies whereby direct work front supervisors were being accustomed to recording of data, it was found that the level of detail required was not significantly different from the data that these supervisors were already taking as part of their work routine. Indeed, it did not matter much how many minutes of free time workers allowed themselves between two work items due to the fact that even if they had finished a work item, often they could not move to another work item until the preparation had been completed. Most of the times however, when a team had completed its piece of work near the end of a work-day, it was impossible to start working on a new front for the following reasons: When a team completed a section of a street sewer near or at the end of a work-day, it could not be made to begin physical work on a new stretch because the authorities were no longer available for providing prior clearances for opening a new stretch. The workers would inevitably have to wait on the following day for the previously completed stretch to be examined by the supervising engineer before he issues his clearance for the next stretch to be opened. Administrative clearances for the new work had not yet been secured: either the engineers clearance / approval for particular stretch was still pending, or municipal authorities had not yet granted permission to the contractor to close a road section that would allow excavation to proceed. When a team completed a house connection near the end of a work-day, it could not be made to begin physical work on a new house connection because the house owner had to be contacted prior to securing permission to enter his premises. Often, near the end of the work-day, residents would be highly reluctant to allow workers starting digging up their property and being inevitably disturbed by the associated noise and dust. Based on these practical constraints it was deemed that the smallest unit of time for any piece of trench work was therefore the man-day, i.e., the amount of work that can be completed would be measured on the basis of the output of a worker in one days work.

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3.5.1

Attendance

First, the attendance records will be scrutinised to assess the level of absenteeism of workers in general, and then to determine whether there is a significant difference between that of foreign workers and their Mauritian counterparts. The trends will be analysed over time (since 2008) in order to detect whether or not absenteeism patterns of foreigners tend to follow that of Mauritians over time as claimed in past studies. The source of data will be the roll-call compiled by the Payroll Department of Sotravic Lte, and the test will be performed on the whole population.
3.5.2 Efficiency and Productivity

Productivity of foreigners will then be compared by analysing data routinely collected on a daily basis for monitoring work (such as hours of resources spent on work items) and outcomes (such quantities of work completed) are compiled by site data supervisors for processing of payments to workers and subcontractors. It is proposed to use this mass of data compiled on sites run by Sotravic Lte employing foreign labour for processing in view of comparing the productivities of foreign workers with Mauritian workers. The data available will cover the whole duration of works on site from the beginning. The following methodology is to be adopted: 1. Data checking (completeness, accuracy, consistency) for all three sites Lot 2, Lot 1B and Lot 1A. 2. Analysis a. calculation of performance on street sewers, house connections, manholes b. comparison of means on different job items (pipes in house connections, pipes in street sewers with varying levels of difficulty from depth and road width, and rock content. c. Hypothesis testing at 95% confidence interval: Data available from existing records will be inserted into SPSS in order to determine the descriptive statistics and check on the hypotheses as follows: Ho there is no difference in performance; H1 - there is a difference in performance between foreign and local labour.
3.5.3 Financial analysis

Based on the actual costs of hiring expatriates, running costs associated to keeping them in employment (bonuses, accommodation, food and other allowances, air tickets,
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guarantees, recruitment and selection costs, among others), the following will be determined a. Fixed and Variable Costs of employing i. foreign labour ii. local labour b. Unit cost of production of items of trench work for house connections and street sewers
3.5.4 Relative benefits

The benefit of using foreign labour against local labour will assessed with reference to productivity and unit cost achieved using foreing labour, compared to using Mauritian labour.

3.6

Data Sources

It is proposed to use data compiled by the QS department on all construction sites employing workforces constituted of both local and foreign labour. The basis of this initial choice is the necessity to compare similar activities and to avert bias due to nonsimilarity of tasks being measured / surveyed. For the purpose of this study, permission has been obtained from Sotravic Lte for having access to the full data available about attendance and work performed by its cohort of both local and foreign workers recruited since 2008. Attendance data will be analysed from thumbprint attendance compiled at Sotravics payroll department. 3.7 Constraints

There are errors in consistency of logging site activities since 2008 discrepancies of this kind are normally detected at the end of a construction project which normally last for less than an year, but in the case of Plaines Wilhems projects, all run for more than 36 months, and these discrepancies are the result of work in progress being counted as and paid for by the Client well after the completion of these items. The resulting lag between costs being outlaid for executing an item and receiving the corresponding money from the Client causes a mismatch at the site level which may cumulate errors of computation regarding running figures, thereby heavily distorting actual progress rates
~ 31 ~

being achieved on site. These errors have been corrected only as from late 2011, and the data analysed for this present study take due consideration for this. Another significant constraint was the question of the size of the database. After collating data from January 2010, it was found that a data file of more than 55,000 rows and 43 columns had been obtained. When attempting to insert these into SPSS, it was found out that the version available for student use was limited in many ways and analysis could not proceed. Instead, the data was kept on an MS Excel file format, and statistical analysis was carried out while taking precautions in order to avert processing errors. The other significant constraint will be that of the time of the study: works have been ongoing since 2008, but will not have reached completion by the submission date of the present study. Indeed, unforeseen circumstances of various nature have delayed completion all sites and a cut-off date has to be set in order to meet the submission deadline. Since all the data accumulated to date will be analysed, it may be safely assumed that the data about the completed works will be representative of the final works. As for the question of confidentiality of Sotravics figures, this may be minimised by the use of standard construction prices as publicly issued by the Construction Industry Development Board (2010).

3.8

Resources

There are no additional resources proposed to be used for the present study. The secondary data from quantities already compiled, checked and vetted by the QS Department will be used for analysing the parameters under investigation for the purpose of comparing / identifying any differences in performance levels between local and foreign teams.

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4 Analysis & Findings

The results of research objectives and answers to research questions formulated in Section 2.9 and Section 2.10 provided below are based on analyses compiled in Section 8 Appendix Calculation Results, and are sorted in the order that they are discussed below.

4.1

Attendance and Punctuality

Mauritian teams were compared with Indian expatriate teams on the basis of attendance to work by filtering attendance records and the results are shown on the graph below:
100%

95%

90%

85%

Attendance Level, %

80%

75%

70%

65%

60%

55% Attendance level of Mauritians Attendance level of Foreign workers

50%
Jan-11 Feb-11 Mar-11 Apr-11 May-11 Jun-11 Jul-11 Aug-11 Sep-11 Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Period

Figure 11: Comparative trend in attendance levels

The difference in absenteeism is significant at 95% level of confidence: Indian expatriate workers are present at 93% of the time on average, compared to 86% only for Mauritian workers. It appears that these expatriate workers almost never take any local leaves, and are absent generally for health problems only, while Mauritian workers tend to take leaves at a much higher frequency (on average 3%, up to a maximum of 22%) for many other reasons.
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However, it must also be noted that attendance of expatriates tends to suffer after the first year in employment, as illustrated in the graph below:

1 No. Of paid leaves per month within 1st year of employment 0.9 No. Of paid leaves per month after 1st year of employment

0.8

0.7

0.6
No. Of paid leaves per month

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 No. o fmonths in employment

Figure 12: Attendance of expat workers before and after first year in employment

The mean number of days of paid leaves taken by expatriate workers increases more than ten-fold from 0.02 to 0.33 days per month after the first twelve months of the migrant workers employment. Therefore there is a significant impact on attendance levels when a worker knows that he is entitled to paid leaves.

4.2

Productivity level on trenchworks

Mauritian teams were compared with Indian expatriate teams by filtering records for lengths of pipeline laid by teams of pipe layers on the following criteria as follows:
4.2.1 4.2.1.1 4.2.1.1.1 House connections Pipe Works 110mm Pipe works

On the smallest pipe available (110mm diameter uPVC pipes) there is a significant difference at 95% confidence level. in pipeline lengths laid per man-day: 12.3m of
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110mm pipes are achieved per local man-day compared to 12.9m per foreigner manday. This may be explained by the Kurtosis and skewness patterns pertaining to the productivity in 110mm pipelines for foreign workers being completely different for local workers as demonstrated by the comparative histogram below:
Histogram of comparative lengths of house connections pipeline (110mm diameter) laid per man-day
40

35

Frequency - Local Frequency - Foreigner

30

25

20

15

10

0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 More

Figure 13: Histogram for comparing lengths of 110mm house connections achieved per man-day

4.2.1.1.2

160mm Pipe works

On the larger pipe (160mm diameter uPVC pipes) there is a significant difference at 95% confidence level. in pipeline lengths laid per man-day: 5.0m are achieved per local man-day compared to 5.9m per foreigner man-day. .
4.2.1.1.3 All diameters of pipes for house connections

It is established at 95% confidence level that foreigners generally perform at higher output level (11.6m per man-day compared to 10.9m per man-day for locals) for laying pipes in house connections.

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4.2.1.2 4.2.1.2.1

Inspection Chambers Plastic Inspection Chambers

There are two sizes of plastic inspection chambers available for use in building house connections: the smallest is of 450mm internal diameter and the larger one being of 600mm diameter, normally for the deepest (near 1.5m), and often longest, lines connecting a toilet to the street sewer. In this case, it is also seen that expatriate workers perform better than locals at 95% confidence interval: 2.5 plastic chambers of 450mm diameter can be laid per local man-day of work, compared to 2.8 per foreigner man-day. 2.4 plastic chambers of 600mm diameter can be laid per local man-day of work, compared to 2.8 per foreigner man-day.

4.2.1.2.2

Pre-Cast Reinforced Concrete ICs

There are two sizes of pre-cast reinforced concrete inspection chambers (PCRCICs) available for use in building house connections, and they are normally employed in heavily trafficked areas (normally by the inhabitants vehicle(s): the smallest is of 450mm internal diameter and the larger one being of 800mm diameter, normally for the deepest (near 1.5m), and often longest, lines connecting a toilet to the street sewer. In the case of the 450mm PCRCICs, has been found that that expatriate workers perform better than locals at 95% confidence interval as 1.3 PCRICs can be laid per local man-day of work, compared to 1.4 per foreigner man-day. However, in the case of the heavier 800mm PCRCICs, it has been found that there is no significant difference at 95% confidence interval that there is a difference in number of chambers completed per man-day: 1.0 PCRICs can be laid per local man-day of work or foreigner man-day.
4.2.1.3 Summary of productivity on House Connections

The table below summarises findings on the productivity of local workers in trenchworks compared to foreign workers.

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Trenchworks item 110mm pipe 160mm pipe All diameter pipes Plastic IC 450mm Plastic IC 600mm Pre-Cast IC 450mm Pre-Cast IC 800mm

Productivity per local man-day 12.3 m 5.0 m 10.9 m 2.5 No. 2.4 No. 1.3 No. 1 No. per foreigner man-day 12.9 m 5.9 m 11.6 m 2.8 No. 2.8 No. 1.4 No. 1 No.

Table 2: Comparative productivity of local and foreigners in hose connection works

It may be seen that foreigners tend to achieve higher daily average figures on most tasks. However, the difference narrows down with increasing level of difficulty, as illustrated by the productivity figures for large plastic ICs and pre-cast concrete chambers. Examination of support resources deployed to these work fronts shows that there is a more intensive deployment of skid-steer loaders (also known as bobcat), lorries, air compressors, all of which add to make these foreigner teams more expensive.

4.2.2 4.2.2.1

Street Sewers Excavation Road Width constraint

4.2.2.1.1

The impact of difficulties was measured by starting with the most obvious one for excavation: the width of the road. Length achieved (m per man-day) Local Foreigner 6.6 6.3 7.2 5.9 10.0 9.4

Road condition
Narrow: width <3.5m Normal: 3.5m < width < 4.5m Wide: width > 4.5m

Table 3: Effect of road width on productivity of operators of excavation equipment

All of the above comparisons of the means have been found to be statistically significant to 95% confidence interval. It may be seen that local operators tend to achieve higher progress rates than foreigners, but the difference in performance level narrows down with increasing level of difficulty posed by working space.
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4.2.2.1.2

Rock Content constraint

Given the basaltic nature and volcanic origin of the local soils, the constraint of rock content has also been found to have an impact on productivity of operators of equipment. However, it has been found that despite being statistically significant, the difference in performance between local and expatriate operators is most often less than 20%, as summarised below:
Metres per day of Local Operator Road width Low
(0% - 40%) Narrow: <3.5m Normal: 3.5m < width < 4.5m Wide: > 4.5m All road widths

metres per day of Foreigner Operator Low

(0% - 40%)

Rock Content Medium

(40% - 60%)

High
(60% - 100%)

Rock Content Medium

(40% - 60%)

High
(60% - 100%)

7.8 11.5 16.1 10.4

7.5 8.9
NO DATA

6.3 6.3
NO DATA

7.4 7.1
11.4

5.6 7.5
NO DATA

6.2 5.0
NO DATA

8.5

6.5

7.1

7.1

5.1

Table 4: Effect of rock content and road width on productivity of operators of excavation equipment

It may be observed that in low rock content, the difference in productivity increase with road width, which again confirms that local operator make more judicious use of the sides of the trench while excavating, especially in manipulating the excavating arm of the machine for adapting to rocky conditions by swapping to hammer for breaking up hard material and back to bucket for emptying the trench.

4.2.3

Pipe works

On the smallest pipe available (160mm diameter uPVC1 pipes) there is a significant difference at 95% confidence level. in pipeline lengths laid per man-day: 4.4m of 160mm pipes are achieved per local man-day compared to 5.0m per foreigner man-day. On the larger pipe (200mm diameter uPVC pipes) there is a significant difference at 95% confidence level in pipeline lengths laid per man-day: 8.6m are achieved per local man-day compared to 21m per foreigner man-day.

uPVC is an abbreviation for unplasticized polyvinyl chloride a substance that is chosen as pipe material in order to give the finished pipe resistance to deformation and chemical attack in underground conditions.
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4.2.4

Concrete Works

The comparative figures for concrete works have been compiled and summarised in the table below. It must be noted that all of the difference in the means have been found to be significant to 95% confidence interval. Man-day requirement per unit of work Local Foreigner
3.2 2.8 6.8 6.8 12.2 15.8 13.8 1.4 1.4 2.1 2.5 7.4 6.3 5.9 13.1 12.4 1.0 0.9

Concrete works items Gully Trap (No.) IC Covers (No.) Slab or Kerb (sq.m) Tiles (sq.m) Brick Laying (sq.m) Concrete Flooring (sq.m) Floor finish (sq.m) Raising Manhole (No.) Benching / Making-Good No.

Table 5: Comparative man-day requirement per unit of concrete work items

It must be noted that all of these difference in the means have been found to be significant to 95% confidence interval. It is also worth noting that except for slab / kerb laying, local workers appear to perform better than foreign workers on all other concreting tasks.

4.3 Financial Analysis

4.3.1 Total cost of recruiting, employing and retaining

The unit costs pertaining to the items identified in section 4.1 will be used as basis for forecasting the overall impact on the cost of undertaking a project using foreign labour. The employment of foreign workers implies that upfront costs have to be incurred since 2010 in fulfilling legal and administrative procedures, all of which have to be factored in the daily cost of a foreign worker. The costs associated to normal contract duration of two years and broken down as per the following items:

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Fees and charges per head (one-off) Amount, Rs Application fee 500 Work permit fee - per year 5,000 Bank guarantee fee for contract duration (i.e. 500 2 years) Air ticket, incoming (one-way, worker fare) 19,000 Air ticket, outgoing (one-way, worker fare) 19,000 Total 44,000
Table 6: Upfront charges and fees (variable costs) for importing foreign labour

Another class of costs relate to the accommodation of the whole cohort of expatriate workers is made up of the following components:
Amount, Rs Variable costs Utility bills - monthly CWA CEB MT Cooking gas, LPG, per month Cooks (3 No.s), per month Transport (8 trips per work-day), per month Furniture Fixed Costs Dormitory building rental, per month Watchman, per month Supervisor / coordinator, per month Operations manager, per month Cleaner, per month Other sundry and housekeeping Total

17,143 20,537 15,000 6,600 42,000 8,000 1,200 110,480 180,000 5,000 12,000 25,000 3,000 640 225,640 336,120

Table 7: Variable and fixed monthly costs of employing expatriate labour

It may be noted that following representations by Sotravics 200-strong cohort of expatriate workers a cook per geographical origin had to be recruited in order to cater for their particular regional culinary tastes 3 cooks in all: first for those coming from Orissa, a second one for those from Bihar, and the third for those from Tamil Nadu. The total indirect cost of employing an expatriate worker is therefore a sum of the variable costs (compulsory, administrative and accommodation) and fixed costs, as follows:

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Total administrative fees per head per year for Amount, Rs contract period Application fee 250 Work permit fee - per year 5,000 Bank guarantee fee for contract duration (i.e. 250 2 years) Air ticket, (one-way, worker fare) 19,000 24,500 Cohort size 200 Total administrative fees for cohort 4,900,000 Cost per Variable costs No. of months Amount, Rs Total, Rs month Utility bills CWA 17,143 24 411,435 CEB 20,537 24 492,885 MT 15,000 24 360,000 Gas (cooking) 6,600 24 158,400 Cooks (3 No.s), per month 42,000 24 1,008,000 Mandatory meal allowance (@ Rs 40/day per 243,333 24 5,840,000 head) Transport (8 trips per work-day), per month 8,000 24 192,000 Furniture 1,200 24 28,800 353,813 8,491,520 Fixed Costs Dormitory building rental, per month 180,000 24 4,320,000 Watchman, per month 5,000 24 120,000 Supervisor / coordinator, per month 12,000 24 288,000 Health & Safety Officer, per month 45,000 24 1,080,000 Operations manager, per month 25,000 24 600,000 Cleaner, per month 3,000 24 72,000 Other sundry and housekeeping 640 24 15,360 270,640 6,495,360 19,886,880 Variable costs - per head per month = total variable costs (cohort size contract duration in months) = (4900000 + 8491520) (200 24) 2,789.90 Rs Fixed costs - per head per month = total fixed costs (cohort size contract duration in months) = 6495360 (200 24) 1,353.20 Rs Total costs - per head per month = 2789.9 + 1353.2 4,143.10 Rs

Table 8: Identification of variable costs and fixed costs of employing foreign labour

The total indirect cost of employing an expatriate worker is therefore Rs 4,147.27 As seen in section 2.1, the Labour Act 1975 implies that expatriate workers become subject to mandatory contributions in the EWF, NPF and NSF if their original 2-year employment contract is renewed for one additional year. This additional cost (Rs 500 application fee and Rs5,000 yearly work permit) is equivalent to an additional variable cost of about Rs 458 per month. Since this extension was applied to only 15 of the present cohort of foreign workers, this additional cost has not been considered.
~ 41 ~

The comparison of total cost of employing foreign and Mauritian workers has been worked out after compiling the following data related to expenses incurred: the average monthly wages earned by all expatriate workers since their recruitment and the average monthly wages earned by Mauritians in employment for the same period the monthly mandatory contributions which Sotravic makes in relation to labour laws the various incentives provided to employees for retaining their services piecework schemes and overtime Insurance premiums for workers: a mandatory requirement in relation to civil works contracts for providing essential insurance coverage for workers operating in dangerous environments.

~ 42 ~

A A.1 A.2 A.3 B

Basic Pay Bonus Special Bonus End-of-Year Bonus Mandatory Employer's Contribution NPF - National Pension Fund EWF - Employer's Welfare Fund Employer's Levy Allowances Meal Transport Paid Leaves - Statutory Requirement Local leave = 16 days' equivalent of Basic Pay Sick leave = 21 days' equivalent of Basic Pay Arrears Additional incentives Piecework Overtime Annual Labour cost = A.3 + 12 (A + A.2 + A.2 + B + C + D + E) Severance Pay Insurance Premium = 0.1% of Total Annual Labour Cost (F) Employer's Liability Insurance Premium = 1.5% of Total Annual Labour Cost (F) Recruitment and selection from abroad

Monthly Average Foreigner Mauritian 8,210.29 7,773.61 45.16 249.56 159.21 676.01 8,414.65 8,699.17 16,829.31 17,398.35 40.00 269.93 539.85 1,737.29 3,030.58 479.11 200.50 127.14 74.71 846.19 255.57 511.14 846.19 1,645.00 2,328.00

176,802.39

200,851.96

1,473.35

1,673.77

22,100.30 4,143.10

25,106.49 42,792.99

Total monthly cost of employment, Rs 41,749.06

Table 9: Calculation of monthly cost of employing workers: foreigners v/s Mauritians

It is worth noting that employing Mauritian workers is subject to mandatory contributions such as EWF, NPF and NSF as from their first month of employment itself.

4.3.2

Unit costs relating to trenchworks

The monthly cost of employing workers can be worked back to determine unit costs. This may be simply determined by finding out the number of hours that can be obtained from the unit cost of an employee. The table below illustrates the unit cost of a typical 110mm house connection sewer:
~ 43 ~

From section 4.2.1.1.1, it was found that one man-day of foreign worker could produce 12.9m of 110mm house connection pipe work against only 12.3m from a local worker. Therefore, from a financial point of view, since one foreigner man-day costs Rs 27,510 per month, the unit cost of the 110mm house connection pipe can be worked out as follows:
Total Labour cost, Rs per month per working day = total monthly cost (5 365 12 7) Productivity, m/day House connection pipework 110mm diameter Cost per m = Cost per w.day productivity (Rs/m) Foreigner 41,749.06 1,921.60 Mauritian 42,792.99 1,969.65

12.90 1921.6 12.9 148.96 1969.65 12.3

12.30

160.13 1,000 1969.65 12.3 6.2 Table

Progress per thousand rupee = productivity cost per w.day (m/Rs)

1,000 1921.6 12.9 6.7

10: Calculation of unit costs: per unit of work and per unit rupee

The above calculation can then be extended onto the other parameters that were analysed in section 4.2 above, and summarised below:

~ 44 ~

Total Labour Cost per month Total Cost per working day = total monthly cost (5 365 12 7)

Foreigner 41,749.06

Mauritian 42,792.99

1,921.60 Cost per Unit of work work unit per man-day (Rs/unit) a

1,406.89 Cost per Progress per Unit of work work unit rupee (m/Rs) b per man-day (Rs/unit) a 6.7 3.1 6.0 12.3 5.0 10.9 156 384 176 Progress per rupee (m/Rs)
b

House connection Pipework: 110mm diameter Pipework: 160mm diameter Pipework: all diameters Inspection Chambers Plastic IC's: 450mm diameter Plastic IC's: 600mm diameter PCRCIC'sa: 450mm diameter PCRCIC's: 800mm diameter Street Sewers Excavation Road Width: Narrow Normal Wide Road Width & Rock content Narrow & High rock content Medium rock content Low rock content Normal & High rock content Medium rock content Low rock content Wide & Low rock content All widths & High rock content Medium rock content Low rock content Pipe works Pipework: 160mm diameter Pipework: 200mm diameter Concrete works Gully Trap (No.) IC Covers (No.) Slab or Kerb (sq.m) Tiles (sq.m) Brick Laying (sq.m) Concrete Flooring (sq.m) Floor finish (sq.m) Raising Manhole (No.) Benching / Making-Good No.

12.9 5.9 11.6

149 326 166

6.4 2.6 5.7

2.8 2.8 1.4 1.0

686 686 1,373 1,922

1.5 1.5 0.7 0.5

2.5 2.4 1.3 1.0

769 801 1,478 1,922

1.3 1.2 0.7 0.5

6.3 5.9 9.4

305 326 204

3.3 3.1 4.9

6.6 7.2 10.0

291 267 192

3.4 3.7 5.2

6.2 5.6 7.4 5.0 7.5 7.1 16.1 5.1 7.1 7.1 5.0 21.0

310 343 260 384 256 271 119 377 271 271 384 92

3.2 2.9 3.9 2.6 3.9 3.7 8.4 2.7 3.7 3.7 2.6 10.9

6.3 7.5 7.8 6.3 8.9 11.5 11.4 6.5 8.5 10.4 4.4 8.6

305 256 246 305 216 167 169 296 226 185 437 223

3.3 3.9 4.1 3.3 4.6 6.0 5.9 3.4 4.4 5.4 2.3 4.5

2.1 2.5 7.4 6.3 5.9 13.1 12.4 1.0 0.9

915 769 260 305 326 147 155 1,922 2,135

1.1 1.3 3.9 3.3 3.1 6.8 6.5 0.5 0.5

3.2 2.8 6.8 6.8 12.2 15.8 13.8 1.4 1.4

601 686 283 283 158 122 139 1,373 1,373

1.7 1.5 3.5 3.5 6.3 8.2 7.2 0.7 0.7

NOTE: a Cost per m = Cost per w.day productivity (Rs/m) b Progress per rupee = productivity cost per w.day (m/Rs) c PCRCIC's: abbreviation for Pre-Cast Reinforced Concrete Inspection Chambers

Table 11: Calculation of cost per work unit and progress achievable per thousand-rupee unit

It must be noted here that unit of money of one thousand rupees was chosen for convenience so as to allow comparisons with whole figure numbers to be made. Generally, it may be seen that the faster the team, the better the progress per unit of money can be achieved. Mauritians perform better than Indians on street sewers and concrete works, but Indians are better in house connection works. The only exception to

~ 45 ~

this is in installing 800mm diameter pre-cast reinforced concrete inspection chambers, where there is no difference in performance between foreign and local teams.

5 Discussion
5.1 Attendance and Punctuality
An absenteeism level of foreigners is different at 95% significant level from local workers: Indian expatriate workers are present at 93% of the time on average, compared to 86% only for Mauritian workers. It appears that these expatriate workers almost never take any local leaves, and are absent generally for health problems only, while Mauritian workers tend to take leaves at a much higher frequency (on average 3%, up to a maximum of 22%) for many other reasons. However, it must also be noted that attendance of expatriates tends to suffer after the first year in employment, as illustrated in the graph below: This can be explained by the fact that in the first year of employment, days of absence are automatically deducted from the monthly pay, but expatriates benefit of same conditions of employment as locals in the form of paid leaves to which they become entitled after the first 12 months. It is established that (at 95% confidence level) that the workers being conscious about the fact that their monthly pay is directly proportional to attendance does have an impact on their attendance level. Unfortunately, the proprietary software used at Sotravic allows attendance to be polled only at monthly intervals, thereby preventing a investigation focussed on the number and frequency of these leaves in order to determine any cyclic variations (proximity with week-end, school holidays or festive seasons and festivals). It therefore cannot be shown that the phenomenon of Monday sickness (a peak in absenteeism on Mondays) is prevalent or not.

5.2 House Connection Pipe Works

When compared to 110mm pipes, both local and foreign teams are seen to deliver about 50% less when assigned to 160mm pipes: one foreigner man-day can achieve 12.9m but only 5.9m when shifting from on 110mm pipes to 160mm pipes, while one local manday sees his productivity fall from 12.3m to 5.0m. However, foreign workers still

~ 46 ~

perform better than locals in laying these 160mm diameter pipes, as confirmed by the overall performance level when the filtering criterion of pipe diameter is removed. This trend may be explained by the fact that house connections made with 160mm pipes are often used to connect more than 5 houses in one common entrance, thereby involving much more fittings along one stretch of the 160mm diameter pipe. This requirement normally complicates the job, and the pipe layer has the responsibility of being creative enough to complete his assignment with the least number of fittings possible. It is also worth noting that the standard deviation is much less than for 110mm pipes, indicating that the larger pipes are normally laid in larger corridors, and which facilitates coordination between workers. One caveat of the data is that there is no indication of the involvement of the work front supervisor in the coordination and decision-making process when selecting the most efficient combination / layout of fittings for connecting the house connection branches onto the 160mm house connection.

5.3 House Connection Chambers

Plastic inspection chambers can easily be lifted and carried by one person without assistance. It has been found that foreign workers would perform better on plastic ICs irrespective of their size: one foreign man-day achieves 2.8 450mm plastic IC against only 2.4 per local man-day. However, the difference in level of performance with larger ICs is at most only 10%. When it comes to pre-cast reinforced concrete ICs, the peculiarity here is that the smaller PCRCIC can be lifted manually, i.e., without the use of mechanised equipment, while the larger one weighs over 180kg and cannot be lifted otherwise. Also, PCRCICs require some level of concreting: at the interface of pre-cast-rings, at the building-in of the pipe into the benching and at the cover. The labour component is therefore much more intensive than that of plastic ICs: normally plastic ICs can be put in service by a pipe layer team, while PCRCICs cannot be put in service unless properly concreted in place. The fact that there is no significant difference in performance level in laying large diameters pre-cast inspection chambers can be explained by the fact that laying of the heavier sections of ICs requires a substantial level of coordination with hoisting personnel (crane-lorry drivers, pipe layers, supervisors) so as to ensure that the manhole adheres to technical requirements the cost of misplacing the manhole can be quite
~ 47 ~

high because, unlike plastic ICs which can be easily twisted into position and re-done almost at will, concrete PCRCICs once set have to be broken up if ever modifications are required after concreting. Also, productivity tends to decrease, while the difference in performance between foreigners and local workers narrows down with increase in difficulty as these tasks are increasingly more dangerous when the components become heavier. Indeed, the

heavier components command a higher level of attention in the manipulation and installation process for safety purposes mishaps would be potentially fatal, and therefore the progress rates appear to be controlled by safety considerations.

5.4 Street Sewers

5.4.1 Excavation

Foreign operators outperform local operators only in wide roads where the trench is dug in low rock content the easiest combination. However, it may be seen that the constraint of width imposes more restraint to the operator, Mauritian operators perform faster and that the difference in performance decreases as width decreases. Mauritian operators tend to perform much better when the trench is dug through rock, showing more dexterity in manoeuvring their machines and also making better use of the space available at the sides of the trench for speeding up their work depositing temporary dumps along the sides of the trench in wide conditions allows digging to be pursued while waiting for an empty lorry to return. When the difficulty of excavating in restricted working space is compounded by the increase in rock content, performance levels fall generally for both local and foreign workers. However, local operators still perform faster. The difference in performance level decreases with increase in rock content on account of more numerous manipulation of the excavator arm when swapping from bucket to hammer. There is no way of shortening this manipulation, and this has to be performed more often when soil conditions become harder. Also efficiency of the excavation process is greatly reduced by a number of factors such as Rock tends to occupy more space when broken up, and when trenches are dug out, the volume of material to be removed is greater than the theoretical volume of the trench. As rock content increases, the width of the trench also increases as a result of uncontrollable and unavoidable over break of the sides of the trench, which
~ 48 ~

collapses, thereby increasing the volume of material to be removed from the trench in order to make it workable. Uniformity of the soil layers cannot be accurately predicted beforehand familiarity with local soil strata can translate into increased dexterity in the excavation process. Overall, Mauritian operators of excavation equipment tend to be generally more productive than their Indian counterparts in excavating trenches at any combination of difficulty. However, when constraints such as road width and rock content become more stringent, the difference in productivity tends to narrow down To the credit of foreign operators it must be noted that they are used to digging in Mauritian soil which is basaltic in nature soil which much more irregular due to its volcanic origin while they are used to work in a material of predominantly granitic nature in the continental shelf of India. This country is expected to possess a soil made up of more weathered material to greater depth which is easier to dig up and more predictable in terms of depth of rock layers.

5.4.2

Pipe work

The difference in performance between locals and foreigners on the 200mm pipeline is unexpectedly large (147%). This can be explained by the fact that expatriate teams were deployed on street sewers after 25 May 2012, as from which date restrictions on permissions for excavating along major roads had been lifted, while Mauritian teams remained on secondary roads where excavation resources and support had already been mobilised and could not be removed. The low progress of local labour was somewhat compensated by the fact that Mauritians were well versed in large diameter GRP pipes (between 350mm and 600mm in diameter). These work fronts were moving at the appreciable rate of 12m per day when administrative constraints were removed, considering the fact that these large diameter pipes require significant coordination for hoisting pipe sections into the trenches. Unfortunately no data was available for comparing with expatriate labour as the latter had not been trained for laying these large-diameter pipes. The comparison may therefore not be relevant given the different circumstances in which the teams were operating. The assessment should be repeated when both teams

~ 49 ~

are brought to work under similar conditions, i.e., when they are facing the similar constraints in terms of nature and severity. The exceptional performance of expat labour must also be viewed from the perspective of global site resources. Indeed, upon examination of the involvement of support resources deployed around foreigner- based work fronts , it may be seen that they take up more of support resources than local-based work fronts.

~ 50 ~

TRENCH CONDITIONS Pipe Diameter Road Width Trench Depth Rock Content Local Operator Foreign Operator EXC HOURS Lorry (20T) (in Nos) Lorry (15T) Lorry (<10T) Compressor Dumpers Bob Cat Mason Breaker Man Pipe Layer Bar Bender Carpenter Unskilled Contractor Bedding (in T) Crusher Run (in T) Excavation Length Pipe Length Backfill Length Excavator activity, % of day Exc hours per man-day Length per man-day Support Resources usage per man-day Lorry (20T) Lorry (15T) Lorry (<10T) Compressor Dumpers Bob Cat Mason Breaker Man Pipe Layer Bar Bender Carpenter Unskilled Contractor Material Usage / man-day Bedding (in T) Crusher Run (in T)

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC ALL ALL ALL 1,713.00 14,047.75 32.30 456.50 1,203.57 3.60 1.31 811.10 13.00 1,045.74 6.20 3,600.58 139.40 9,280.62 3,077.78 13,822.68 9,997.80 7,002.89 91% 4.03 6.78

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Narrow

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Normal

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Wide

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Narrow Shallow

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Normal Shallow

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC ALL Shallow

foreign ALL DEEP

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Narrow Deep

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Normal Deep

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Wide Deep

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Narrow Shallow Low 129.00 1,284.00 29.00 127.55 92.21 101.64 3.00 332.60 1.00 1,293.08 356.97 1,434.57 1,244.23 649.94 111% 18.22 3.86 -

foreign

LOCAL 200 / 250 uPVC Narrow Shallow Medium 2.00 -

foreign

126.00 1,068.30 2.00 34.50 106.77 2.00 93.17 74.10 338.50 6.00 455.59 131.95 848.99 700.75 296.30 94% 4.78 6.22

380.00 3,071.50 1.30 17.00 352.91 0.11 177.54 1.00 245.41 770.91 14.00 2,445.23 464.70 2,894.17 2,360.92 1,445.05 90% 5.52 5.66

32.00 290.20 1.00 43.50 29.80 18.70 106.00 140.08 18.00 250.94 200.14 73.69 101% 6.27 5.10

1,067.00 5,164,507.47 29.00 434.50 840.23 1.00 1.20 626.83 11.00 779.78 6.20 2,733.82 120.80 6,779.06 2,553.98 9,231.44 7,158.95 5,291.15 54% 7.02 4.54

85.00 726.00 2.00 32.50 63.27 60.37 55.40 223.50 307.51 113.95 575.95 481.56 215.61 95% 7.76 3.98

133.00 1,284.00 29.00 127.55 92.21 101.64 3.00 332.60 1.00 1,293.08 356.97 1,457.71 1,244.23 649.94 107% 8.51 3.42

4.00 32.00 4.00 3.50 2.50 8.00 28.20 37.70 34.55 89% 9.26 2.86

10.00 67.50 3.90 0.11 0.71 1.00 15.00 3.00 19.30 2.70 60.93 59.16 18.05 75% 10.00 2.30

2.00 12.30 2.00 1.20 7.00 10.90 13.85 12.00 68% 10.75 1.74

22.00 129.00 10.00 7.11 8.30 2.00 15.00 34.00 12.00 86.40 29.04 216.60 158.82 70.83 65% 11.50 1.18

1.00 3.30 1.00 1.00 2.00 37% 12.25 0.62

1,403.00 12,684.65 29.30 362.00 1,115.30 1.00 1.20 719.54 10.00 942.03 6.20 3,052.70 116.80 8,386.68 2,643.47 11,685.85 8,698.40 6,065.76 100% 12.99 0.06 -

117.00 1,036.10 2.00 32.50 104.77 89.67 72.10 326.50 447.15 131.95 838.64 693.77 296.30 98% 13.74 0.50 -

365.00 2,948.50 1.30 17.00 342.60 176.72 1.00 244.00 744.91 8.00 2,425.93 462.00 2,821.24 2,301.76 1,427.00 90% 14.49 1.06 -

30.00 292.30 1.00 43.50 29.30 18.70 104.00 134.64 18.00 261.59 203.54 73.69 108% 15.23 1.62 -

823.00 8,382.90 26.00 313.00 642.27 1.00 1.20 447.17 9.00 594.84 3.20 1,954.42 107.80 4,665.53 1,813.00 6,819.86 5,146.42 3,962.72 113% 15.98 2.18 -

78.00 666.70 2.00 26.50 61.27 53.87 50.90 205.50 276.31 113.95 529.25 440.78 215.61 95% 16.73 2.74 -

4.00 32.00 4.00 3.50 2.50 8.00 28.20 37.70 34.55 89% 17.48 3.30 -

2.00 NO DATA 14.00 1.00 5.00 7.40 7.55 78% #DIV/0! 18.97 19.72 4.42 4.98 -

2.00 12.30 2.00 1.20 7.00 10.90 13.85 12.00 68% 21.21 6.10

15.00 0.70 0.11 0.11 3.00 3.00 4.10 6.65 6.80 13.00 83% 20.46 5.54 -

0.01 0.07 0.28 0.00 0.16 0.01 0.81 0.14 0.10

0.01 0.05 0.51 0.00 0.11 0.00 0.67 0.88 0.07

0.00 0.03 0.74 0.00 0.38 0.00 0.52 1.62 0.03

0.02 0.97 0.65 0.38 2.37 -

0.00 0.00 1.20 0.00 0.93 0.00 0.24 3.11 0.03

0.01 0.01 1.43 0.00 1.20 0.00 0.09 3.85 0.07

0.01 0.03 1.66 0.00 1.47 0.01 0.05 4.59 0.10

0.01 0.04 1.90 0.01 1.74 0.01 0.19 5.33 0.13

0.01 0.06 2.13 0.01 2.01 0.01 0.34 6.07 0.17

0.02 0.08 2.36 0.01 2.29 0.01 0.48 6.81 0.20

0.02 0.09 2.59 0.01 2.56 0.01 0.62 7.55 0.23

0.02 0.11 2.82 0.01 2.83 0.02 0.77 8.29 0.26

0.02 0.12 3.05 0.01 3.10 0.02 0.91 9.03 0.30

0.03 0.14 3.28 0.01 3.38 0.02 1.06 9.77 0.33

0.03 0.15 3.51 0.01 3.65 0.02 1.20 10.51 0.36

0.03 0.17 3.75 0.02 3.92 0.02 1.34 11.25 0.40

0.03 0.19 3.98 0.02 4.19 0.03 1.49 12.00 0.43

0.04 0.20 4.21 0.02 4.46 0.03 1.63 12.74 0.46

0.04 0.22 4.44 0.02 4.74 0.03 1.77 13.48 0.50

0.04 0.23 4.67 0.02 5.01 0.03 1.92 14.22 0.53

0.04 0.25 4.90 0.02 5.28 0.03 2.06 14.96 0.56

0.05 0.26 5.13 0.02 5.55 0.03 2.20 15.70 0.59

0.05 0.28 5.36 0.02 5.82 0.04 2.35 16.44 0.63

0.05 0.30 5.60 0.03 6.10 0.04 2.49 17.18 0.66

9.57 2.55

7.31 1.81

5.05 1.08

2.80 0.35 -

0.54 0.39 -

1.71 1.12 -

3.97 1.86 -

6.23 2.59 -

8.48 3.33 -

10.74 4.06 -

12.99 4.79 -

15.25 5.53 -

17.51 6.26 -

19.76 7.00 -

22.02 7.73 -

24.27 8.47 -

26.53 9.20 -

28.79 9.94 -

31.04 10.67 -

33.30 11.40 -

35.55 12.14 -

37.81 12.87 -

40.07 13.61 -

42.32 14.34

Table 12: Comparative contribution of support resources in achieving progress rates

5.5 Concrete works

The analysis shows that Mauritians outperform Indian workers in most of the concreteplacing items of work, which contradicts the hear-say / anecdotal evidence that Indians are better than locals. An inspection of the data series shows that there are indeed a few Indian teams whose performance matches that of Mauritians, but the trend is not sustained over time. One caveat to this experiment is that some teams are made up of a mixture of Indians and Mauritians, and the performance of which showed no discernable trend. Also, the effect of allowing teams to conduct different tasks within the same day has not been investigated there could be an effect of saturation that prevents Indian teams from performing better, while some Mauritian teams are specialists in only a few of tasks (such as laying bricks, kerbs and tiles, while others are specialised in casting concrete). Therefore, no clear-cut conclusions can be drawn unless these aspects are investigated.

~ 52 ~

6 Conclusion & Recommendations

The study has confirmed that attendance of levels of Mauritian workers is significantly lower than that of foreign workers. However, the attendance of foreign workers tends to increase significantly after their first year of employment, possibly from knowing that they become entitled to paid local leaves and sick leaves. However, it was found that it was not possible to investigate whether proximity with public holidays and week-ends had any effect on absenteeism levels. This was due to the

proprietary software being used for logging thumbprint attendance did not allow polling and analysis on this constraint. A recommendation at company level would be to arrange for the software to be modified so as to allow polling data on a set of criteria, and in real-time if possible so as to enable monitoring and planning. On another level, causes of absenteeism among local workers and foreigners could be investigated in view of addressing the problem of acute absenteeism that some sites have complained about especially on Mondays.

The analysis carried out on site records pertaining to trenchworks have given strong indication that Indian workers thrive in work involving less physical effort, such as smalldiameter pipe work (house connection and street sewer) as compared to excavation and concreting, where dexterity influences workmanship and productivity. demonstrated that Indian workers are better performers on house connection works, in both pipe work and installation of inspection chambers Indian workers are also more productive on street sewer pipe works Indian workers are more productive probably due to a more intensive contribution of support resources surrounding their main task. Mauritian workers are more efficient than foreigners in concrete works Indian equipment operators are more at ease in the easiest combination of trench work wide roads and low rock content Mauritian equipment operators perform faster in complicated trench set-ups (width, rock content) One major difficulty that may have significant impact on progress rates achieved of all work items is the presence of underground obstructions, and yet this important parameter was not The study has

~ 53 ~

recorded together with the daily progress. It was later found that separate payment was effected to local subcontractors in order to deal with these obstructions and was compiled in a separate weekly record aggregated over the length of a road. This important feature should form part of the of the recording routine of work front supervisors such that the impact of these difficulties can be estimated and forecasted with accuracy. It was not possible to isolate the contribution of individual workers on one site in particular, Lot 2, where the difference in logging of site data posed a major constraint. It was found during a preliminary data collection and comparison exercise that progress was logged differently across sites: Lot 1A and Lot 1B sites were relatively similar, where the focus was both on reducing the lag between closing fortnightly accounts and on issuing a monthly statement as accurate as possible to the client. It was relatively easy to trace back the performance of individual workers most of which were grouped according to their nationality on almost any item of work and on almost any period, especially so after the management reshuffling exercise carried out in 2010. On Lot 2 however, it was found that the focus was different: there was no way of determining the individual performance of workers on work that was executed and completed by teams, which themselves were made up of a varying proportion of foreigners and local workers. It is therefore recommended that data logging of activities be rationalised according to a standard format and methodology so as to maintain uniformity and consistency of records and allow analysis to be carried out across sites. The analysis of unit costs per unit of work reveals that whenever a team is better in achieving a progress rate, the unit cost is lower as a result of spending less time per unit of work completed. This is reflected in the progress achievable per money unit. These valuable parameters are useful in planning for achieving a desired rate of progress while also considering a cost target. However are incomplete as long as the other resources forming part of the project are not combined to display the full cost structure: equipment, vehicle, supervision, materials usage and support. At the level of the country no study has so far investigated into the effect of allowing companies to hire migrant workers up to 25% of the number of employees on their payroll: indeed, the remittances that these foreign employees send to their home country represents a significant leakage from of the local economy, while the government is providing substantial incentives to economic operators. A study could shed light on the magnitude of such a
~ 54 ~

leakage, if any, and thereby assess whether government financing such incentives to sustain the competitiveness of local economic operators is sustanable, rather than invest in ways of channelling the untapped economic potential of local unemployed people.

~ 55 ~

7 References
ARMSTRONG, M., 1928. Handbook of human resource management practice, 11 ed. London: Kogan Page BUSINESS MEGA, 30 January 2012. Doing Business - World of Work: The Contract, a Cheap Labor and Low Binding answer to low productivity and skills shortage in [online] http://www.lexpress.mu/services/archive-103922-foreign-workers-in-mauritius--an-answerto-low-productivity-and-skills-shortage.html-. [Accessed 31 January 2012] CALLIKAN, A., 2011. Over 33,000 foreign workers in Mauritius [The Independent Daily] Available from: [online] http://theindependent.mu/2011/01/25/over-33000-foreign-workersin-mauritius/ [Accessed 23 October 2011] CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT BOARD, 2010. Construction Industry All-In Rates for Labour, Equipment and Material [unpublished] COONJAN, J., 1996. Issues and Challenges facing the Mauritian Labour Force - University of Mauritius DABEEDIAL, R. (2001) Language Problems among Migrant Workers in Mauritius - A Case Study - University of Mauritius HEIN, P., 2004. International Migration Papers 71 - Options for Migration Policies in the Long Term Development of Mauritius. [International Labour Office, Geneva] Available from: [online] http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/download/imp/imp71.pdf [Accessed: 28 November 2011] HILL, C. W. L., 2011. International business: competing in the global marketplace. McGraw Hill Irwin.-8th ed. HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL, 2007. Report of Sectoral Committee on Emerging Sectors Ministry of Education & Human Resources [online] [online] http://www.hrdc.mu/report2.pdf [accessed 01 September 2011] INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE, 2000. Task Force on Country Studies on Globalization - Studies on the social dimensions of globalization: Mauritius -Geneva [online] [online] http://ilomirror.library.cornell.edu/public/english/employment/strat/cepr/download/maurit.pdf-. [Accessed 03 July 2012] JHOWRY, C., 2001. Employment of Foreign Labour in Mauritius: Proposals for a new strategy - University of Mauritius KOONJEE, A., 2010. Assessment of the use of foreign workers in the construction industry. University of Mauritius SCHIFT, M., 1995: "Migration and the skill composition of the labor force : the impact of trade liberalization in developing countries, Volume 1" - POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPER 1493 The World Bank978-0-7494-5242-1[online] http://go.worldbank.org/XAGWIL00W0-. [Accessed 01 July 2012]
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MCKENZIE D., Gibson J & Stillman S (2007) - A land of milk and honey with streets paved with gold: Do emigrants have over-optimistic expectations about incomes abroad. CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0709, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration - Department of Economics, University College [London] http://www.econ.yale.edu/seminars/develop/tdw07/mckenzie-071210.pdf-. [Accessed 24 July 2012] MEETARBHAN Raj (23 September 2010) Culture du http://www.lexpress.mu/news/451-blog--. [Accessed 06 August2012] travail [online]

MINISTRY OF LABOUR, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & EMPLOYMENT, 2012. Guidelines For Work Permit Application March 2012 - (Employment Division) [online] http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/empment/file/wpermit%20guidelines-16mar%202012.pdf-. [Accessed 26 May 2012] MINISTRY OF LABOUR, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & EMPLOYMENT Mar2012 (Employment Division) - Guidelines For Work Permit Application - [online] http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/empment/file/wpermit%20guidelines-16mar%202012.pdf-. [Accessed 26 May 2012] MINISTRY OF LABOUR, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & EMPLOYMENT (Employment Division) Guidelines For Work Permit Application [online] http://www.eregulations.mu/upload/guidelines/wpguidelines.pdf -. [Accessed 02 August 2012] MOOTYEN, I S., 1995. An Appraisal of the Mauritian Labour Market and Import of Foreign Labour in Mauritius University of Mauritius NAIKO, Y T, 2006. Migrant Workers - Legal, Managerial and Socio Economic Aspects University of Mauritius POONIE, R., 1996. Management Challenges in the construction industry in Mauritius. University of Mauritius PUBLIC PROCUREMENT OFFICE, 2006: Standard Prequalification Documents for Procurement of Large or Complex Work (Second Edition) - Procurement Policy Office Ministry of Finance and Economic Development [online] http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/pposite/SBDforPrequalification.doc.pdf [Accessed 03 May 2012] PUTTY, M. B. R. A., 2008. A study of foreign labour productivity gains University of Mauritius RAGOOBUR, V., 2008. Foreign workers in Mauritius: an answer to low productivity and skills shortage, Mauritius Employers Federation 05 March 2008. [online] http://www.lexpress.mu/services/archive-103922-foreign-. [Accessed 01 May 2012] RAMCHURN, SD, 2004. An investigation into the relationship between migrant workers and supervisors in the textile industry. University of Mauritius.

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RAMDOO, I, 2005: Labour Market in Mauritius An Analysis of the Continuous Multi Purpose Household Survey [online] [online] http://www.mcci.org/Photos/document/cciinfo/Labour_Market_in_Mauritius.pdf . [Accessed 22 June 2012] RATHA, D; Mohapatra, S; Silwal,A, 2011. Migration and remittances factbook 2011 : second edition. Washington D.C. The World Bank [online] http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/11/13088961/migration-remittancesfactbook-2011-second-. [Accessed 12 January 2012] SEEBUN, B., 1996. Management Control in the Construction Industry - University of Mauritius - HD9715.S4 SHAW, W., 2007. Migration in Africa : a review of the economic literature on international migration in 10 countries. Washington D.C. - The World bank. [online] http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/04/9243069/migration-africa-revieweconomic-literature-international-migration-10-countries [Accessed 03 December 2011] STALKER, P., 1994. The work of strangers: A survey of international labour migration. Geneva, International Labour Office STATISTICS MAURITIUS, 2011. Tableau de bord: Selected Social and Economic Indicators 2006 - 2011 - Ministry of Finance & Economic Development [online] [online] http://www.gov.mu/portal/site/cso/menuitem.a31c41a0cdd58d2533b6e70ea0208a0c/ .pdf [Accessed 22 January 2012] STATISTICS MAURITIUS 2011. Historical Series - Labour Force - Table 1.1 Labour force, Employment and Unemployment [online] http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/cso/hs/labour/t1.1.xls.pdf [Accessed 22 January 2012] STATISTICS MAURITIUS 2011. Mauritius in figures 2011 - Ministry of Finance & Economic Development .pdf [Accessed 22 January 2012] STATISTICS MAURITIUS, 2011. Historical Series - Labour Force - Foreign workers employed in large firms. Ministry of Finance & Economic Development - [online] www.gov.mu/portal/goc/cso/hs/labour/see26.xls [accessed 22 January 2012] STATISTICS MAURITIUS, 2011. Mauritius in figures 2011 - Ministry of Finance & Economic Development .pdf [Accessed 22 January 2012] STATISTICS MAURITIUS, 2011- Tableau de bord: Selected Social and Economic Indicators 2006 - 2011 - Ministry of Finance & Economic Development.pdf [Accessed 22 January 2012] STATISTICS MAURITIUS July 2009 - Digest Of Labour Statistics Ministry of Finance and Economic Development [online] http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/cso/report/natacc/labour09/labour09.pdf.pdf [Accessed 22 January 2012] STATISTICS MAURITIUS July 2010 - Digest Of Labour Statistics Ministry of Finance and Economic Development [online] http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/cso/report/natacc/labour10/labour10.pdf .pdf [Accessed 22 January 2012]
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STATISTICS MAURITIUS July 2011 - Digest OF Labour Statistics Ministry of Finance and Economic Development [online] http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/cso/file/Digest%20Labour2011.pdf [Accessed 22 January 2012] Tl-Plus, Broadcast Series, Mauritius College of the Air, 1986. TV, MBC1. April 2008. WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, 2007 Plaines Wilhems Sewerage Project - Stage 1, Contract WW 80F: Construction Of Reticulation Network And House Connections - Lot 1A: Tender Document Vol. 1. Port Louis. Ministry of Public Utilities WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, 2007 Plaines Wilhems Sewerage Project - Stage 1, Contract WW 99F: Construction Of Reticulation Network And House Connections - Lot 1B: Tender Document Vol. 1. Port Louis. Ministry of Public Utilities WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, 2007 Plaines Wilhems Sewerage Project - Stage 1, Contract WW 81F: Construction Of Reticulation Network And House Connections - Lot 2: Tender Document Vol. 1. Port Louis. Ministry of Public Utilities WORLD BANK. 2009. Mauritius - Investment climate assessment. Washington D.C. - The World bank. [online] http://siteresources.worldbank.org/MAURITIUSEXTN/Resources/icamauritius-0110.pdf [Accessed 16 March 2012] WORLD BANK. 2010. Mauritius enhancing and sustaining competitiveness : policy notes on trade and labor. Washington D.C. - The World bank. [online] http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/12/14288097/mauritius-enhancingsustaining-competitiveness-policy-notes-trade-labor [Accessed 16 March 2012]

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8 Appendix Calculation Results

8.1 Attendance
z-Test: Two Sample for Means No. Of paid leaves per month No. Of paid leaves per month after within 1st year of employment 1st year of employment 0.023584906 0.33479553 0.0393 0.0578 106 158 0 -11.46687793 0 1.644853627 0 1.959963985

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 13: Difference in attendance levels before and after 1st year of employment of foreign workers

Since z < zcritical, the null hypothesis of means being equal is rejected at 95% confidence level.

8.2

House Connection Trench Works

8.2.1 110mm diameter uPVC pipes

House connections: Comparative lengths of pipeline (110mm diameter) laid per man-day
30.00 Qty per Local man-day Qty per Foreigner man-day Linear (Qty per Local man-day) 25.00 Linear (Qty per Foreigner man-day)

20.00

15.00 Mean = 12.9 m per foreigner man-day Mean = 12.3 m per local man-day 10.00 y = 0.0003x R = 0.0013 y = 0.0003x R = 0.0005

5.00

0.00 13-Jan-12

02-Feb-12

22-Feb-12

13-Mar-12

02-Apr-12

22-Apr-12

12-May-12

01-Jun-12

21-Jun-12

11-Jul-12

~ 60 ~

Figure 14: House connections: relative productivity in laying 110mm uPVC pipes (12 Jan 2012 to 12 July2012).

The test statistics (assuming = 0.05 or 95% confidence) on the population is given in the table below:
Local 10.434375 Foreign 10.66969697

Mean Standard Error Median Mode Standard Deviation Sample Variance Kurtosis Skewness Range Minimum Maximum Sum Count Largest(1) Smallest(1) Confidence Level(95.0%)

12.31575188 Mean 0.400508577 Standard Error 11.86 Median #N/A Mode

12.87947723 0.39244985 12.53723404 9.5 4.116048747 16.94185729 0.268468425 0.68893351 20.21666667 5.983333333 26.2 1416.742495 110 26.2 5.983333333 0.77782282

4.21961969 Standard Deviation 17.80519032 Sample Variance 0.835716196 Kurtosis 0.721861199 Skewness 23.46086957 Range 2.739130435 Minimum 26.2 Maximum 1367.048458 Sum 111 Count 26.2 Largest(1) 2.739130435 Smallest(1) 0.793713968 Confidence Level(95.0%)

Table 14: Test statistics for House connections: relative productivity in laying 110mm uPVC pipes (12 Jan 2012 to 07 May 2012).

The z-test on the population data gives the following result:

Qty per Local man-day ty per Foreigner man-day Q Mean 12.29895387 12.8595693 Known Variance 17.52 16.68 Observations 112 111 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z -1.012299395 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.155697462 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.311394924 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985

Table 15: Results of z-test performed on population data

Since z < zcritical, the null hypothesis of means being equal is rejected at 95% confidence level.

~ 61 ~

8.2.2 160mm diameter uPVC pipes

House connections: Comparative lengths of pipeline (160mm diameter) laid per man-day
25.0 Qty / Local man-day Qty / Foreign man-day Linear (Qty / Local man-day)

20.0

Linear (Qty / Foreign man-day)

15.0

10.0

Mean = 5.8 m per foreigner man-day 5.0 Mean = 5.0 m per lcoal man-day

y = 0.0001x R = -9E-04 y = 0.0001x R = -0.001

0.0 13-Jan-12

02-Feb-12

22-Feb-12

13-Mar-12

02-Apr-12

22-Apr-12

12-May-12

01-Jun-12

21-Jun-12

11-Jul-12

Figure 15: House connections: relative productivity in laying 160mm uPVC pipes (08 May 2012 to 12 July 2012)

The test statistics (assuming = 0.05 or 95% confidence) on the population is given in the table below:

~ 62 ~

House connections: Comparative lengths of pipeline (160mm diameter) laid per man-day
25.0 Qty / Local man-day Qty / Foreign man-day Linear (Qty / Local man-day)

20.0

Linear (Qty / Foreign man-day)

15.0

10.0

Mean = 5.8 m per foreigner man-day 5.0 Mean = 5.0 m per lcoal man-day

y = 0.0001x R = -9E-04 y = 0.0001x R = -0.001

0.0 13-Jan-12

02-Feb-12

22-Feb-12

13-Mar-12

02-Apr-12

22-Apr-12

12-May-12

01-Jun-12

21-Jun-12

11-Jul-12

correlation local
Local 15 Foreigner 4

-0.0377

c o r r e l a t i o n f o r- 0 . 0 7 7 2 8 5 8 9 9 eign

Mean Standard Error Median Mode

5.7802025 Mean 0.5110209 Standard Error 4.55 Median 10 Mode

4.9954234 0.3332901 3.9873016 3 2.86707

S t a n d a r d D e v i a t i o n3 . 9 5 8 3 5 1 2 S t a n d a r d D e v i a t i o n Sample Variance Kurtosis Skewness Range Minimum Maximum Sum Count Largest(1) 15.668544 Sample Variance 3.8611569 Kurtosis 1.717756 Skewness 20.8 Range 1.2 Minimum 22 Maximum 346.81215 Sum 60 Count 22 Largest(1)

8.2200906 0.3500624 1.1369125 10.945 1.38 12.325 369.66133 74 12.325

Table 16: Test statistics for House connections: relative productivity in laying 160mm uPVC pipes (12 Jan 2012 to 12 Jul 2012).

~ 63 ~

From 12-Jan-12

To 12-Jul-12

z-Test: Two Sample for Means Qty / Foreign man-day Qty / Local man-day Mean 5.931346702 4.982151059 Known Variance 16.5 8 Observations 61 75 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z 1.545588234 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.061102022 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.122204044

Since z < zcritical, the null hypothesis of means being equal is rejected at 95% confidence level. This implies that foreign workers perform better in laying 160mm diameter pipes, but when compared to 110mm pipes, both teams are seen to deliver much less at about 50% less. 8.2.3 House connections: pipes of all diameters
House connections: Comparative lengths of pipeline (all diameters) laid per man-day

30

Qty per Local man-day Qty per Foreigner man-day Linear (Qty per Local man-day)

25

Linear (Qty per Foreigner man-day)

20

15 Mean = 11.7m 10

Mean = 11.0m

y = 0.0003x y = 0.0003x R = 0.0019 R = 0.0002

02-Apr-12

12-Apr-12

22-Apr-12

13-Jan-12

23-Jan-12

02-May-12

12-May-12

22-May-12

02-Feb-12

12-Feb-12

22-Feb-12

01-Jun-12

11-Jun-12

21-Jun-12

01-Jul-12

Figure 16: House connections: relative productivity in laying all diameter uPVC pipes (12 Jan 2012 to 12 July 2012)

The test statistics (assuming a = 0.05 or 95% confidence) on the population is given in the table below:

23-Mar-12

03-Mar-12

13-Mar-12

~ 64 ~

11-Jul-12

Local 10.434375

Foreigner 10.66969697

Mean Standard Error Median Mode

10.955442 Mean 0.4292408 Standard Error 10.3375 Median #N/A Mode

11.6639217 0.3817052 11.6648352 15.9

S t a n d a r d D e v i a t i o n4 . 5 2 2 3 3 2 3 S t a n d a r d D e v i a t i o4 . 0 3 9 5 8 8 1 2 n Sample Variance Kurtosis Skewness Range Minimum Maximum Sum Count Largest(1) Smallest(1) 20.451489 Sample Variance 1.2998771 Kurtosis 1.0702581 Skewness 21.96 Range 4.24 Minimum 26.2 Maximum 1216.054 Sum 111 Count 26.2 Largest(1) 4.24 Smallest(1) 16.3182722 -0.1825886 0.25982661 18.67 3.2 21.87 1306.35924 112 21.87 3.2

Table 17: Test statistics for House connections: relative productivity in laying all uPVC pipes (12 Jan 2012 to 12 Jul 2012).

z-Test: Two Sample for Means Qty per Local man-day Foreigner man-day Qty per Mean 10.9507892 11.6551233 Known Variance 20.09 16.04 Observations 112 113 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z -1.24253479 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.10701966 z Critical one-tail 1.64485363 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.21403931

The null hypothesis of means being equal is rejected at 95% confidence level. It is therefore established that foreigners perform at higher output level for laying pipes in house connections. 8.2.4 Plastic IC 450mm diameter

~ 65 ~

Column1 Mean Standard Error Median Mode Standard Deviation Sample Variance Kurtosis Skewness Range Minimum Maximum Sum Count Largest(1) Smallest(1) Confidence Level(95.0%)

Column2 2.545454545 Mean 0.228642805 Standard Error 2 Median 2 Mode 1.516644789 Standard Deviation 2.300211416 Sample Variance 2.80059939 Kurtosis 1.459643365 Skewness 7 Range 1 Minimum 8 Maximum 112 Sum 44 Count 8 Largest(1) 1 Smallest(1) 0.461102155 Confidence Level(95.0%) 2.765957447 0.338977029 2 1 2.323909431 5.400555042 7.155714228 2.21804652 12 1 13 130 47 13 1 0.68232536

z-Test: Two Sample for Means Qty per Local man-day Qty per Foreignerman-day Mean 2.545454545 2.765957447 Known Variance 2.3 5.4 Observations 44 47 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z -0.539311754 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.29483588 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.58967176 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985
Table 18: Test statistics for House connections: relative productivity in laying 450mm plastic IC's

Since z < zcritical, the null hypothesis of means being equal is rejected at 95% confidence level.

~ 66 ~

8.2.5 Plastic IC 600mm diameter

Column1 Mean Standard Error Median Mode Standard Deviation Sample Variance Kurtosis Skewness Range Minimum Maximum Sum Count Largest(1) Smallest(1) Confidence Level(95.0%) Column2 2.42 Mean 0.230509639 Standard Error 2 Median 1 Mode 1.629949292 Standard Deviation 2.656734694 Sample Variance 1.750039454 Kurtosis 1.400440563 Skewness 6 Range 1 Minimum 7 Maximum 121 Sum 50 Count 7 Largest(1) 1 Smallest(1) 0.463226455 Confidence Level(95.0%) z-Test: Two Sample for Means Qty per Local man-day Qty per Foreignerman-day Mean 2.42 2.854545455 Known Variance 2.66 2.94 Observations 50 55 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z -1.330593896 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.091661336 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.183322672 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985 Table 19:
Test statistics for House connections: relative productivity in laying 600mm plastic IC's

2.854545455 0.231257988 2 2 1.715055142 2.941414141 -0.166608173 0.874184318 6 1 7 157 55 7 1 0.463644348

Since z < zcritical, the null hypothesis of means being equal is rejected at 95% confidence level.

~ 67 ~

8.2.6 Pre-Cast Reinforced Concrete IC 450mm diameter

Column1 Mean Standard Error Median Mode Standard Deviation Sample Variance Kurtosis Skewness Range Minimum Maximum Sum Count Largest(1) Smallest(1) Confidence Level(95.0%) Column2 1.358823529 Mean 0.09517014 Standard Error 1 Median 1 Mode 0.554932509 Standard Deviation 0.307950089 Sample Variance 0.796090033 Kurtosis 1.318412331 Skewness 2 Range 1 Minimum 3 Maximum 46.2 Sum 34 Count 3 Largest(1) 1 Smallest(1) 0.193625105 Confidence Level(95.0%) z-Test: Two Sample for Means Qty per Local man-day Foreignerman-day Qty per Mean 1.358823529 1.412668464 Known Variance 0.31 0.31 Observations 34 53 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z -0.44013081 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.329921184 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.659842369 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985
Table 20: Test statistics for House connections: relative productivity in laying 450mm PCRCIC's

1.412668464 0.076141778 1 1 0.554320513 0.307271231 1.609860728 1.413046742 2 1 3 74.87142857 53 3 1 0.152789653

Since z < zcritical, the null hypothesis of means being equal is rejected at 95% confidence level.

~ 68 ~

8.2.7 Pre-Cast Reinforced Concrete IC 800mm diameter

Column1 Mean Standard Error Median Mode Standard Deviation Sample Variance Kurtosis Skewness Range Minimum Maximum Sum Count Largest(1) Smallest(1) Confidence Level(95.0%) Column2 1.041666667 Mean 0.041666667 Standard Error 1 Median 1 Mode 0.204124145 Standard Deviation 0.041666667 Sample Variance 24 Kurtosis 4.898979486 Skewness 1 Range 1 Minimum 2 Maximum 25 Sum 24 Count 2 Largest(1) 1 Smallest(1) 0.086194067 Confidence Level(95.0%) z-Test: Two Sample for Means Qty per Local man-day per Foreignerman-day Qty Mean 1.041666667 1.029411765 Known Variance 0.04 0.03 Observations 24 34 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z 0.242729887 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.404107327 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.808214653 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985
Table 21: Test statistics for House connections: relative productivity in laying 800mm PCRCIC's

1.029411765 0.029411765 1 1 0.171498585 0.029411765 34 5.830951895 1 1 2 35 34 2 1 0.059838685

Since z > zcritical, the null hypothesis of means being equal cannot be rejected at 95% confidence level. 8.3 Street Sewer Trench Works

~ 69 ~

8.3.1 Excavation effect of road width

ROAD WIDTH z-Test: Two Sample for Means road condition: NARROW

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 6.583950698 6.260392157 19.9691 10.0928 382 34 0 0.547600886 0.29198299 1.644853627 0.583965981 1.959963985 road condition: NORMAL

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 7.205773742 5.893158436 27.757 11.855 887 81 0 3.114249874 0.000922066 1.644853627 0.001844132 1.959963985 road condition: WIDE

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 10.03919444 9.425 36.392 16.592 180 4 0 0.294477679 0.384196459 1.644853627 0.768392917 1.959963985

Table 22: Excavation for Street Sewers - Impact of road width on mean progress rates

8.3.2 Excavation effect of trench depth

~ 70 ~

ROAD WIDTH AND SHALLOW TRENCH z-Test: Two Sample for Means road condition: NARROW & SHALLOW

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 5.7605 6.925 15.191 0.0306 10 2 0 -0.940091656 0.173585274 1.644853627 0.347170549 1.959963985 road condition: NORMAL & SHALLOW

NO DATA

z-Test: Two Sample for Means

road condition: WIDE & SHALLOW

NO DATA

Table 23: Excavation for Street Sewers - Impact of trench depth on mean progress rates

~ 71 ~

ROAD WIDTH AND ROCK CONTENT z-Test: Two Sample for Means

road condition: NARROW & LOW ROCK CONTENT (0% - 40%)

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 7.788181818 7.39 20.986 6.1604 33 5 0 0.291333707 0.385398055 1.644853627 0.77079611 1.959963985 road condition: NORMAL & LOW ROCK CONTENT (0% - 40%)

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 11.54852381 7.082352941 43.959 9.4391 70 17 0 4.105833358 2.0143E-05 1.644853627 4.0286E-05 1.959963985 road condition: WIDE & LOW ROCK CONTENT (0% - 40%)

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 16.0995 11.35 32.997 5.5225 20 2 0 2.261384652 0.011867724 1.644853627 0.023735448 1.959963985 road condition: LOW ROCK CONTENT ( 0% - 40%) Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day Excavation Length per 10.43786988 7.080357143 37.501 9.926 187 28 0 4.506667168 3.29269E-06 1.644853627 6.58538E-06 1.959963985

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 24: Excavation for Street Sewers in low rock content - Impact of road width on mean progress rates

~ 72 ~

~ 73 ~

z-Test: Two Sample for Means

road condition: NARROW & MEDIUM ROCK CONTENT (40% - 60%)

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 7.535963542 5.635714286 30.569 7.6891 64 7 0 1.513634306 0.065059308 1.644853627 0.130118615 1.959963985 road condition: NORMAL & MEDIUM ROCK CONTENT (40% - 60%)

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day 8.859694042 7.477083333 24.359 7.9977 207 12 0 1.561348948 0.05922072 1.644853627 0.11844144 1.959963985 road condition: WIDE & MEDIUM ROCK CONTENT (40% - 60%)

Excavation Length per Local operator man-day NO DATA

Excavation Length per Foreign operator man-day

z-Test: Two Sample for Means

road condition: MEDIUM ROCK CONTENT ( 40% - 60%)

ength per Foreign operator man-day

Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day Excavation Length per Mean 8.489751888 7.05875 Known Variance 27.39 9.5243 Observations 309 20 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z 1.904019621 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.028453814 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.056907629 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985

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Table 25: Excavation for Street Sewers in medium rock content - Impact of road width on mean progress rates

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z-Test: Two Sample for Means road condition: NARROW & HIGH ROCK CONTENT ( 60% - 100%)

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day Mean 6.302389089 6.191851852 Known Variance 17.905 13.81 Observations 278 18 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z 0.121211513 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.451761753 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.903523506 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985 z-Test: Two Sample for Means road condition: NORMAL & HIGH ROCK CONTENT ( 60% - 100%)

Excavation Length per Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day Mean 6.320161152 5.000473485 Known Variance 22.022 8.3061 Observations 639 44 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z 2.793102535 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.002610257 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.005220514 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985 z-Test: Two Sample for Means & HIGH ROCK CONTENT ( 60% - 100%) road condition: WIDE

Excavation Length per Local operator man-day NO DATA

Excavation Length per Foreign operator man-day

z-Test: Two Sample for Means ROCK CONTENT ( 60% - 100%) road condition: HIGH Excavation Length per Foreign operator man-day Excavation Length per Local operator man-day Foreign operator man-day Excavation Length per Mean 6.510408972 5.099602564 Known Variance 21.931 11.107 Observations 967 65 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z 3.206739774 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.000671242 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.001342484 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985

Table 26: Excavation for Street Sewers in high rock content - Impact of road width on mean progress rates

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8.3.3 Pipe works

PVC 160 z-Test: Two Sample for Means Local m per man/day 4.368379836 5.34 64 0 -0.646303888 0.259041285 1.644853627 0.51808257 1.959963985 Foreigner m per man/day 5.028571429 6.72 7

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 27: Street Sewers - Comparative productivity in laying 160mm uPVC pipes

PVC 200 z-Test: Two Sample for Means LOCAL Foreign 8.684484755 21.41730769 7.87 132.9 120 13 0 -3.969586652 3.59987E-05 1.644853627 7.19974E-05 1.959963985

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 28: Street Sewers - Comparative productivity in laying 200mm uPVC pipes

GRP pipes 350 - 600mm

Before After 25 May 2012 t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances Variable 1 Variable 2 Mean 7.892541482 12.75415476 Variance 7.848826016 27.07917484 Observations 108 16 Pooled Variance 10.21321317 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 df 122 t Stat -5.678847914 P(T<=t) one-tail 4.6843E-08 t Critical one-tail 1.979599854 P(T<=t) two-tail 9.36861E-08 t Critical two-tail 2.269402411
Table 29: Comparative productivity in laying GRP pipes

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8.4

Concrete works
z-Test: Two Sample for Means Gully Trap Foreigner productivity on Local productivity on Gully Gully Trap (No.) Trap (No.) 3.15663511 2.148044383 7.4 3.57 213 189 0 4.355202447 6.6472E-06 1.644853627 1.32944E-05 1.959963985

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 30: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity on installing gully traps

z-Test: Two Sample for Means

IC covers Foreigner productivity on IC Covers (No. per day) 2.846768836 5.67 204 0 1.450009699 0.073527907 1.644853627 0.147055815 1.959963985 Local productivity on IC Covers (No.) 2.496739855 5.73 188

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 31: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity in casting / fixing IC covers

z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Slab / Kerb Foreigner productivty on Local productivity on Slab or Slab or Kerb (sq.m) Kerb (sq.m) 6.824147321 7.367579365 45.34 15.77 20 21 0 -0.312816067 0.377210204 1.644853627 0.754420408 1.959963985

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 32: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity on laying slabs / kerbs

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z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Tiles Foreigner productivty on Tiles (sq.m) 6.849081197 43.17 39 0 0.330232857 0.370612011 1.644853627 0.741224022 1.959963985 Local productivity on Tiles (sq.m) 6.348048942 21.51 18

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 33: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity on laying tiles

z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Brick Laying Foreigner productivty on Local productivity on Brick Brick Laying (sq.m) Laying (sq.m) 12.18385273 5.86150974 243.88 18.5 97 55 0 3.744644902 9.03245E-05 1.644853627 0.000180649 1.959963985

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 34: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity on laying bricks

z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Concrete Flooring

Foreigner productivty on Local productivity on Concrete Flooring (sq.m) Concrete Flooring (sq.m) Mean 15.83765191 13.05047367 Known Variance 265.93 148.38 Observations 226 192 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 z 1.996198851 P(Z<=z) one-tail 0.022956141 z Critical one-tail 1.644853627 P(Z<=z) two-tail 0.045912283 z Critical two-tail 1.959963985 Table 35: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity on casting concrete floors

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z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Floor finish Foreigner productivty on Local productivity on Floor Floor finish (sq.m) finish (sq.m) 13.79543105 12.35928864 222.93 139.16 175 176 0 0.999500368 0.15877618 1.644853627 0.317552361 1.959963985

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 36: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity in finishing concrete floors
z-Test: Two Sample for Means Raising manhole Foreigner productivty on Local productivity on Raising Raising Manhole No. Manhole No. 1.431752044 1.047619048 0.35 0.21 66 2 0 1.156612529 0.123715351 1.644853627 0.247430701 1.959963985

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 37: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity in raising manholes

z-Test: Two Sample for Means

Benching / making good Foreigner productivty on Benching M.Good No. 1.355555556 0.21 3 0 1.239546639 0.107571564 1.644853627 0.215143128 1.959963985 Local productivity on Benching M.Good No. 0.944444444 0.12 3

Mean Known Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference z P(Z<=z) one-tail z Critical one-tail P(Z<=z) two-tail z Critical two-tail

Table 38: Concrete works: comparative mean productivity in making good / benching to manholes

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9 Annex Photographs
17 - Excavation for street sewer in normal width road 18 - Excavation for street sewer in narrow road

D:\Work\Contract WW99F - Lot 1B\Pictures\2011 03 04 - Y to ICA

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10 Annex Planning Gantt chart

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11 Annex Progress Log

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