The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian construction industry is being "killed and decimated" by the large-scale importation of foreign workers for jobs that are not being made known to locals, it was argued yesterday.

Leonard Sands, the Bahamian Contractors Association's (BCA) immediate past president, told Tribune Business that the government should impose "a moratorium on on all work permits for Abaco until all residents are gainfully employed" after it was disclosed that the Baker's Bay Golf & Ocean Club was seeking to bring in 135 Mexican workers to kick-start post-Dorian reconstruction.

Voicing doubts over whether the development had advertised such posts locally to see whether Bahamian contractors and tradesmen with the necessary skills were available and willing to work, Mr Sands argued that the local industry was being denied opportunities and treated as "second class workers" through such practices that are "becoming the norm".

He added that, "working across multiple construction industry disciplines", he was used to "an environment" where the ratio of expatriate workers was one for every 19 Bahamians. Asserting that labour certificates and work permits are "granted too easily" in the sector, Mr Sands said this resulted in significant monies leaving the Bahamian economy via expatriate remittances to their homeland.

Urging Baker's Bay to "revisit" its decision, the former BCA president called for the necessary "political will" to implement legislation mandating developers and project managers to "exhaust every opportunity" to locate and hire appropriately-qualified Bahamian contractors and skilled workers before bringing in expatriates.

Elsworth Johnson, minister of financial services, trade and industry and Immigration, yesterday suggested that The Bahamas stood on the edge of a potential "construction boom" due to a combination of post-Dorian rebuilding and upcoming investment projects such as the Royal Caribbean/ITM and Carnival developments in Freeport (see article on Page 3B).

He suggested a "labour shortage" may result if The Bahamas relied solely on its own workforce to meet these demands, and indicated that developers such as Baker's Bay - which he added wants to be back in operation within 12 to 18 months - may have no alternative but to apply for expatriate workers en masse to meet these aggressive timelines.

However, developers seeking to hire expatriate workers are supposed to advertise such positions locally first, and connect with the Department of Labour's jobs/skills exchange, to see if there are any qualified Bahamians willing and able to do the work first. Once they demonstrate none are available, a labour certificate is issued and the work permit application begins.

Mr Sands said this was vital "to determine if there is a labour shortage", adding that he was unaware of Baker's Bay advertising the posts it is seeking to fill with Mexicans. "We've got to stop this practice of making Bahamians second class when they should be first class," he blasted to Tribune Business.

"You cannot start thinking of employing foreign workers unless you can show that you've exhausted the potential pool locally. This is killing our industry; literally killing it. I have sub-contractors calling me left, right and centre looking for work. They're at home, and can't pay their mortgages and children's school fees, and yet they say they are bringing in 135 workers?

"It's erroneous and we have to stop that. It's killing our economy. Eighty cents out of every $1 that's made here by foreign workers is repatriated. Just 20 cents of every $1 goes into our GDP in a positive way."

Dr Livingston Marshall, Baker's Bay's senior vice-president for environmental and community affairs, yesterday confirmed to Tribune Business that the developer, Discovery Land Company, was seeking to hire the Mexican workers to help lead reconstruction at the luxury Guana Cay-based development.

Defending the move, he said the developer was hoping their skills will provide a boost in rebuilding what was the so-called "anchor project" for north Abaco.

Agreeing that Baker's Bay would seek to ensure knowledge and skills transfer to Bahamian construction workers, Dr Marshall reaffirmed: "They're specialist workers. They're not here yet." He declined to comment further.

Mr Sands, meanwhile, argued that the solution was for Parliament to pass legislation mandating that all options for hiring Bahamians be exhausted before expatriates were employed, but questioned whether there was sufficient "political will" to do this.

"I work across multiple construction industry disciplines, and I'm not saying there are not instances where you need to hire a foreign worker," he said. "But the environment I'm in is 5 percent foreign to 95 percent local."

The ex-BCA president, who has made vociferous complaints that downtown Nassau's Pointe development has failed to comply with the 70 percent Bahamian/30 percent Chinese construction labour ratio stipulated in the Heads of Agreement with the Government, argued that labour certificates and work permits are being "granted too easily" with respect to the construction industry.

He added that the inability of Bahamians to find construction work had a direct link to crime levels and other social ills, given that the sector played a vital role in employing semi-skilled and unskilled labour. A strong construction industry, Mr Sands argued, correlated with lower crime.

"This is a national issue," he told Tribune Business. "Construction is the third pillar of the economy generating billions of dollars in revenue, and we put the local contractor, tradesman, artisan, labourer where all of them are pushed to the back of the line waiting for opportunities that may never reveal themselves.

"It's not a progressive Bahamas, it's regressive. I hope Baker's Bay will revisit their decision. I'm hoping the minister of labour [Dion Foulkes] will fly to Baker's Bay and ask them where they looked for locals before seeking to hire foreigners. If they can't show this, the labour certificates should be rejected.

"I have friends in Abaco who are looking for jobs. When did they ask them? It's really a travesty. We're in a very difficult place as a nation when our citizens are no longer given the first option for engagement. This cannot continue this way if we want this country to be as successful as we can be."

Stephen Wrinkle, also an ex-BCA president, yesterday told this newspaper that balancing the interests of foreign investors with the Bahamian construction industry's needs had always been a challenge that needs to be addressed by both sides.

Acknowledging the likely labour shortage created by Hurricane Dorian reconstruction, Mr Wrinkle said: "It takes negotiation and working in partnership.... We have a population that's not really interested in the trades, not really interested in working in the fields by and large, and I don't think any concerted effort has been made to rebuild the construction industry since the 2008-2009 recession.

"Unless we make a concerted effort to rebuild it from the inside out, the ground up, this problem will be repeating itself over and over again. The real problem is raising the level of Bahamian participation. If we sit on the sidelines as Mexicans and Filipinos do all the work we're not going to have a Bahamian workforce.

"It's a multi-faceted problem that needs to be addressed and has been festering for decades. It's not a simple solution, but a real effort needs to be made to wrap our hands around it and decide a course of action that benefits everyone. We've all got to put our heads together to make it work."

Mr Wrinkle, who acknowledged that "there's two sides of the coin", added that developers such as Baker's Bay were often faced with having to hire expatriate contractors and labour if there were simply not enough qualified Bahamians to perform the task that was needed.

He added that Mexican construction workers were known as skilled tradesmen, and viewed as particularly good in producing the high-end finishes required on the multi-million dollar homes that have to be rebuilt for Baker's Bay and their clients.

The former BCA chief, though, urged that an "excellent opportunity for skills and knowledge transfer" not be wasted at Baker's Bay. And he also questioned whether the developer had advertised the posts and made efforts to recruit Bahamian labour.