TEAM Proclaims Tourism Workers are Paying the Price for Government Policy Failures

The Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM) has sharply criticized recent foreign exchange policy changes, stating that hospitality workers who are bringing foreign currency into the country are being forced to bear the brunt of government shortcomings.

The statement follows regulatory shifts reducing foreign exchange surrender requirements for resort operators to 40%, while restricting hospitality workers from receiving their basic salaries and service charges in US Dollars.

advertisement

advertisement

TEAM argues that transferring the strain of national dollar shortages onto hospitality workers is fundamentally unjust. They made clear that the dollar crisis stems directly from government policy failures and political decisions, not from the actions of hospitality workers. Further elaborating on the struggles the employees now have to face, TEAM emphasises that these workers spend long hours away from their homes and families to generate the nation’s foreign currency revenues, only to be systematically pushed into facing the consequences of state-level missteps.

The association highlighted that depriving resort staff of their dollar earnings comes at a time of rising living costs, making it increasingly difficult for families to cover essential expenses such as medical care, children’s education, and foreign travel. Under the current arrangement, workers who generate foreign exchange are unfairly forced to buy dollars back from the local black market at inflated exchange rates just to meet basic needs.

Rather than altering the salaries and service charges of hospitality workers to ease foreign exchange pressures, TEAM urged the government to address the crisis through concrete structural reforms. They advised the state to limit unnecessary spending, minimize the excessive number of political appointees, suspend non-essential vanity projects, and focus fiscal resources strictly on essential public services.

Additionally, TEAM urged the government to strengthen the economy by encouraging private sector growth, expanding employment within the tourism industry, and halting the indirect printing of money. The association also recommended temporarily scaling back foreign travel to embassies and diplomatic missions while strengthening international relations to seek external assistance. Finally, they called for an end to discrimination among banks and business owners, emphasizing the need for transparent, properly established laws and regulations.

TEAM called on the government and monetary authorities to immediately repeal dollar wage restrictions, insisting that national foreign exchange mismanagement must be solved through responsible governance, not by stripping tourism employees of their earned income.