The Permits Foundation, led by the Hague-based Shell Spouse Employment Centre, was launched last month (June), and is promoting access to world-wide employment of expatriate spouses by encouraging governments to relax work permit regulations.

The foundation is also highlighting this as a concerning issue to multinational companies, being a threat to employee mobility and diversity.

"These days, more than 50% of women work in their home country," says Kathleen van der Wilk-Carlton, manager of the Shell Spouse Employment Centre, which spearheaded the initiative and is managing the work of the foundation. "Among younger women this statistic is even higher."

Such statistics were gained from the Outlook Survey, a huge Shell survey of all its expatriate staff, in 1993, which led to the creation of the Shell Spouse Employment Centre and eventually the Permits Foundation.

With the dual career issue becoming more prominent, there is a strong argument for companies needing to reassure their employees that their spouses will not have to put their careers on hold to accompany them on assignment.

"We felt the issue was becoming more recognized - certainly, it's now talked about at every HR conference," says Van der Wilk-Carlton.

In addition, Van der Wilk-Carlton has been managing the Shell Spouse Employment Centre for almost five years, and is very close to the issue. The centre advises about 600 partners a year and is in a strong position to see how work permit regulations affect expat spouses.

Van der Wilk-Carlton suggests that the spouse dissatisfaction may not always be disclosed as a prominent reason for assignment failure or refusal to accept.

"People are quite cautious about saying 'I have to give up this because my spouse is unhappy'," she says, adding that: "To tell an employer that doesn't really mark you as a mobile employee."

Van der Wilk-Carlton adds that it's the various levels of unhappiness that are the most damaging, which expatriate families can try to conceal but which can ultimately have a very negative effect on work performance and assignment success.

Currently there are only a handful of countries allowing spouses accompanying expatriates to work. These include the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Venezuela, and European Union countries (for EU citizens only).

The primary aim of the foundation is to have work permit regulations for spouses relaxed in as many countries as possible, through raising awareness and increasing lobbying efforts via resources from sponsors.

Key groups include multinational companies to whom international mobility is important, international organizations who promote overseas investment and trade and the diplomatic community.

Sponsors include the American Council on International Personnel (ACIP), Akzo Nobel, AstraZeneca, BT, CMS Cameron McKenna, DSM, Diageo, ECA International, GlaxoSmithKline, Heineken, ICI, Organization Resources Counselors, Inc. (ORC), PricewaterhouseCoopers, Schlumberger, Shell, Siemens, UBS Warburg, Unilever, and WS Atkins.

The foundation also has patron support from a number of chief executives. These include Andrew Gould, executive VP, Schlumberger Oilfield Services, Heinrich von Pierer, president and CEO, Siemens Group and Jeroen van der Veer, president, Royal Dutch Petroleum and deputy chairman, Royal Dutch Shell Group.

"We've got some very senior corporate support," says Van der Wilk-Carlton.

"We recognized that if we could get an international alliance together of companies, service providers, governments, trade missions and diplomatic missions, we could make headway with this issue."

Permits chairman Jan Schaapsmeerders says the formation of the foundation is a timely development.

"Highly-skilled and qualified personnel who have the ability to perform a specific expert function away from home are at a premium."

"It is essential that these men and women feel they can take expatriate posts which offer fair employment prospects to their spouses too. Otherwise, the Permits Foundation believes, fewer people may take up assignments abroad which may lessen the skills base and technology transfer available to both developing and developed countries."

The official view of the foundation is that governments should recognize the considerable benefits expatriates can bring to a country, including skills and knowledge transfer and the training of local staff.

To this end, temporary work permits for spouses should be seen as a "small concession" separate from normal immigration policy.

The foundation has also elected for a world-wide approach to the issue as it is one affecting a wide spread of companies across a range of countries. As it increases its resources and network it is examining each country on a case-by-case basis.

Van der Wilk-Carlton says there are positive signs that the permits issue will make considerable progress.

In the diplomatic world governments have already recognized that the problem needed addressing for their own employees and their spouses in the diplomatic community, and have addressed the issue through common bilateral agreements allowing diplomats' spouses to work.

In 1998 Canada and the Netherlands relaxed regulations making it easier for partners to work.

In the United States, two bills providing work authorization to spouses of certain visa holders including inter-company transferees, were introduced in the U.S. Congress on June 21. This was the result of lobbying by groups including employers' coalition MEWS (Multi-national Employers for Working Spouses).

The foundation is seeking further sponsorship so it can increase its network of support and lobbying efforts to local governments.

Van der Wilk-Carlton says the argument for becoming a sponsor is twofold: "Not only will you help to promote change, but the broader the support base, the more governments who will recognize this is an important issue.

"Sponsorship would also send a very important message to a company's own employees that they care."