The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

EXPATRIATE workers at both ends of the spectrum are increasingly expanding into "jobs that can be done by Bahamians", a senior Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) executive told Tribune Business yesterday, a trend that has become evident during the recession.

Brian Nutt, head of the BCCEC's employment and labour relations division, said foreign workers in lower-income manual jobs were moving up the labour ladder, while those at the managerial/supervisory end were growing their reach in the opposite direction - in effect squeezing the categories where Bahamians can find work.

Mr Nutt was speaking to Tribune Business after expressing scepticism over the findings of a joint report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

This had ranked the Bahamas as having "the highest labour productivity" in the region as measured by GDP "per engaged person", this nation having a per capita $45,206 average on this measurement.

This calculation, though, appears to better measure the per average capita GDP of employment persons, and ignores the relatively high 15.9 per cent official unemployment rate. And Mr Nutt said: "I just don't see the Bahamas being ranked the highest in productivity when we know we have productivity problems here."

Acknowledging that the Bahamas had "a very serious problem" when it came to unemployment, the BCCEC executive questioned, though, whether a major part of the problem were Bahamians who were "unemployable" - lacking even the basic literacy and numeracy skills to make themselves attractive to employers.

And Mr Nutt suggested that the Bahamas' difficulties during the recession may have been exacerbated by its labour productivity issues, and whether 'value for money' output was received from workers, as this was all linked into this nation's position as a high-cost destination.

Pointing out that relatively low labour productivity levels were also tied to the number of work permits issued annually, Mr Nutt said there were two categories of expatriate workers.

The first, or the "lower echelon", were the likes of Haitians and Jamaicans "hired to do jobs Bahamians refused to do". Then, "of course, you have the supervisory level work permits for people in managerial and supervisory positions".

Mr Nutt told Tribune Business: "One of the things that seems to be happening over the last few years is those levels seem to be expanding.

"So you now have the lower echelon workers who are now, instead of becoming garbage collectors, they're becoming truck drivers, and some of the managers and supervisors have descended to persons becoming data entry clerks..."

He added: "That's what I see. That is something that should be guarded against. Jobs that can be done by Bahamians are being taken in part by that expansion.

"As far as the work permit situation is concerned, there needs to be more focus on, first, is this a job Bahamians refuse to do, and second, is this a job where you have no Bahamians qualified to do this, and you have to put in foreign employees to do the job properly."

Mr Nutt's remarks come after labour minister, Shane Gibson, pledged that it would not be "business as usual" when it came to the Department of Labour issuing certificates to facilitate the hiring of expatriate staff by Bahamas-based companies. He added that every work permit would have to be justified.

While the ECLAC/ILO report used May 2011's 13.7 per cent measurement for the Bahamas' total unemployment level, this still placed the country as having the highest official jobless rate in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

In addition, the Bahamas' youth unemployment rate, at 27.5 per cent, was second only to Jamaica's 30.1 per cent in the Latin American and Caribbean region. This means that more than one in every four Bahamians between the ages of 15-24 is unable to find gainful employment, despite looking for it.

"In looking at the report, and looking at the unemployment numbers, we have a very serious problem in the Bahamas as far as persons not working," Mr Nutt conceded to Tribune Business.

"It become a question of how much of it is truly unemployment, and how much of it is persons that are unemployable? I have no idea, but there are persons that fall into that category.

"That would be a failure on the part of our education system, number one, and number two, our employers not focusing on methods to improve and raise productivity."

While blaming the Bahamian economy's recent downturn on external events that caused tourism spending inflows and foreign direct investment (FDI) to dry up, Mr Nutt said productivity had exacerbated the problem.

"The other aspect of it is that the Bahamas is considered a very high-priced destination, and a lot of that has to do with productivity, effectiveness and efficiency," he added. "That does not go just for the worker, but utilities and the cost of energy.

"We are not as competitive on the regional or global market, and that's where productivity is important."

While Bahamas-based companies often viewed productivity from the perspective of staying ahead of their local competition, Mr Nutt said the "key" was to "keep an eye" on their global rivals. "That means you have to increase productivity to become more competitive," he added.

Calling for salary levels in the Bahamian economy to be linked more to productivity, Mr Nutt said the issue meant different things to different companies, and was difficult to measure. Therefore, many businesses did not know if they were improving productivity, and the BCCEC executive also cautioned companies against sacrificing quality for higher output.

He called on the Bahamas to "raise the standard of education, so we get better results from persons going into the workforce", and urged employers to implement training programmes for their staff.

And he warned: "Not only do we need an educated person to go into the job in the beginning, but Bahamians have to realise that in order to be competitive, in order to be productive, lifelong learning is necessary because technology is changing the way we do things all the time.

"Look back 10, 20 years and things were done a lot differently. You had pen and paper, and never used a word processor."

As for productivity's benefits, Mr Nutt said: "The more productivity we have, the more money goes into circulation and the standard of living increases."