The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DIRECTOR of Labour John Pinder further defended the department’s understudy/apprenticeship programme yesterday, days after saying he wanted employers’ work permits revoked if they failed to appoint and properly train apprentices.

“...It has nothing to do with no Bahamianisation story from 1967,” he said.

“...You tell me you have 50 people trained so I want to know how they are being trained. What training programme is in place? I want to see what they have learned the first week, the second week and the third week,” he said at a BTVI town meeting yesterday.

“Don’t just tell me how the training is. We want to see how the training is going on…So not that I’m trying to set up where only Bahamians are supposed to work in the Bahamas.

“We know we can’t run no country like that. It’s a global market now and we have several Bahamians all over the world with top positions... But, the Department of Labour is responsible for trying to help Bahamians get jobs.

“That’s our responsibility and so if you get a bunch of people on work permits and I don’t know what is he doing so that a Bahamian can’t get a work position — I think you ought to ensure that somebody is being trained.”

His comments came days after Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes told reporters that officials “were tightening” the understudy programme so that Bahamians can be properly trained to replace expatriate work permit holders.

The move, Mr Pinder told The Tribune last week, would give the department teeth and earn it more respect in the eyes of employers who have not ensured Bahamian employees are trained for certain jobs.

“We want to be transparent...Okay, you need to have a master’s degree in five languages (for some job postings) and they need to be able to do all of these things. We want to ensure that that job actually calls for it. I just want to make sure that you’re not trying to pull one over our eyes. They’re saying that no Bahamians are qualified,” he added.

“We just want to ensure that the reason why you’re bringing in a foreign worker is because there’s no Bahamians qualified. It’s as simple as that.”

Last year, Mr Pinder said employers requesting work permits will have to provide the Department of Labour with named understudies to expatriate workers and their training programmes to ensure Bahamians can replace them.

According to Mr Pinder, it had been the department’s intention to have this stipulation enforced by this month.

However, he noted to this newspaper that it could be longer before the rule can be officially enforced, saying there needs to be further discussions with the Department of Immigration to ensure labour officials have a functioning plan.