The Tribune

IMMIGRATION Minister Fred Mitchell, speaking at a Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation luncheon on Thursday, has accused The Tribune of “highjacking” the debate over government’s proposed work permit policy.

He claimed that in doing so The Tribune was “protecting its own interest.” This is true, and if he were to be completely frank, he might have added that it was also protecting the interests of every business in this country that requires the skills of foreign staff – skills that cannot be found in the Bahamas. The difference is that we have a voice, but the others don’t, and so the problems that we face are no different from those faced by many sectors on every level of this community. Therefore, we are not speaking for ourselves alone. Not only were our interests being threatened by the heavy hand of government, but so were those of many businesses and homes in the private sector. As a consequence businesses — the very engine that generates jobs – were being highjacked by a government that has no understanding of their problems.

Mr Mitchell’s words must have sent a chill down the spine of former Chamber of Commerce president Khaalis Rolle, now government’s minister of state for investment. No sooner were the words out of Mr Mitchell’s mouth, than Mr Rolle was in the saddle riding to the rescue.

Mr Rolle urged businesses and investors — at the best of times a skittish lot — “not to panic.” He assured the business community that the Christie administration intended to strike the right balance. He told the private sector that Mr Mitchell’s hard line position on work permits was “not a firm policy.” No final position, he said, had been taken by government.

“The clarification that needs to come is that it was just thrown out there,” said Mr Rolle. “The government has not developed a firm policy position on it. This is just being considered as a mechanism to create domestic jobs for Bahamians,” he said.

If it were domestic jobs that he wanted to create what was he doing down in Freeport warning the industrial sector that government could start refusing work permits for Freeport “cold turkey” unless firms started implementing policies to hire and train Bahamians. He singled out the Shipyard, Quality Services and BORCO, also alleging that Grand Bahama Power Company was using work permits and expatriate labour in a bid to “deregister” its existing trade unions.

“I think that the only exceptions (to government’s strict immigration policy) would be people at the very top like Managing Directors or at that level or owner’s representatives,” said Mr Mitchell.

Of course, alarm bells rang loudly in Freeport in the business community. It was a tactless announcement to make on an island economically sinking for want of investment.

Also if it were only domestic jobs that he was trying to create why was he questioning the permit of The Tribune’s night editor when Mr Mitchell of all people knows that The Tribune has a history that goes way back of training Bahamians? He also knows that we have Bahamian editors, but not enough of them if this newspaper is to continue to grow.

Mr Mitchell also complained about one of our editorials claiming that it supported the view that Bahamians “are lazy, they steal and don’t want to work.” In that editorial we made it clear that there are many hard working, skilled Bahamians, but there were not enough of them to keep this economy growing. The quote to which Mr Mitchell referred was not from us, but from a hardworking Bahamian who had succeeded through his own efforts. We wrote: “He despaired over the Mitchell policy. His experience with his own fellow Bahamians is that they have no pride in their work, they don’t arrive for work on time and when payday comes on Friday, they might not show up on Monday. ‘Most of them are a complete disaster!’ he remarked.” He said nothing about stealing – nor did we— as Mr Mitchell had claimed. However, if he had we would not have disagreed with him — we have had much experience in this department.

In his talk to the Chamber Mr Mitchell himself admitted that the calibre of the workforce that he was trying to foist on private enterprise was not up to scratch.

Mr Mitchell acknowledged that much of the dysfunction in Bahamian society had resulted from persons not having a “systematic upbringing” and “socialisation,” resulting in them “scrapping from place to place” and lacking the discipline imposed by regular, legitimate work.

The Inter–American Development Bank reported that two-thirds of employee firings in the Bahamas today stemmed from “behaviour problems.” This report, to be made public this week, was previewed in Tribune Business on Friday.

“In practice,” said the IDB, “when employers search among job applicants, the lack of skills is one of the main difficulties in recruiting.”

And, said the bank, 51 per cent of Bahamian information and communication companies surveyed, along with 39 per cent in the accommodation and food services sector, said “a lack of soft skills” was the main obstacle they faced in finding new employees. In the wholesale and retail industry, the IDB study noted that 26 per cent of companies had dismissed staff for absenteeism.

And in some sectors — notably the electricity, water, AC and gas industry, in addition to human health and social work — almost all companies surveyed had been forced to dismiss employees because of behavioural issues.

Government should take this report and make an effort to improve its job and skills training programmes. This is something that only government can do in its technical and vocational institutions.

It is true that this is society’s problem from which much of our crime stems, but government is certainly going about it in the wrong way by making businesses suffer.

The only way to create jobs is to encourage an atmosphere in which businesses can grow and prosper. Growth means more job opportunities, which Bahamians can fill provided government provides a labour pool of trained young men and women from which private business can draw.

Government can’t shrug its responsibilities off onto the private sector, and threaten that if they don’t accept the full burden, they will be penalised by the denial of work permits for skilled labour.

In this one Mr Mitchell has been too busy hopping around on the wrong foot — it’s now time for him to visit Mr Khaalis Rolle and get it right. Mr Rolle is the one man in the government who should have first hand knowledge of the problems of the private sector.