The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A leading businessman yesterday warned that the Government’s proposed hardline work permit/labour certificate approach was giving the relevant officials a licence to “treat the private sector like dirt” when it came to processing applications.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, Superwash’s president, told Tribune Business that while the Christie administration’s ultimate work permit policies may be more benign than it is letting on, it was “creating the perception they are anti-foreign”.

And, when it came to the proposed plan to stop issuing work permits to maids, labourers and gardeners within one year, Mr D’Aguilar said it would likely send executives and their employers heading for the exit doors, as the Bahamian public school system was not producing local workers with the required education.

Suggesting that many in the private sector were afraid to speak out, for fear that the Immigration and Labour Departments would deny them the necessary permits and certificates, Mr D’Aguilar said there was a disconnect between policy and reality because few officials making the decisions had ever run their own business.

Questioning why few Immigration Ministers saw their job as “facilitating business”, the former Chamber of Commerce said their Department seemed to believe the private sector hired expatriates because they wanted to use foreign labour, and that it was “cheaper and easier”.

“That’s far from the truth,” Mr D’Aguilar added, pointed to the time and expense associated with recruiting and hiring the correct expatriate.

Warning both Fred Mitchell, minister of immigration, and Shane Gibson, the minister responsible for labour, about the internal messages they were sending, he told Tribune Business: “They are basically sending a message to staff in both their departments that they can treat the business community like dirt, because their ministerial superior has this hardline policy.

“We’ve got to tread cautiously on this. It’s been a vexing problem for many years. It’s not something where we can make radical decisions and everyone runs for the hills.”