The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian Contractors Association's (BCA) president yesterday branded as "empty words" the Prime Minister’s latest promise of a work permit crackdown and said he will believe it when he sees it.

Leonard Sands told Tribune Business he was now swayed by Philip Davis KC's warning, as he concluded the Budget debate in the House of Assembly, that it was "unacceptable" for businesses to seek work permit renewals for expatriate staff who have already been in The Bahamas for 10-15 years.

He added that the Department of Labour has been told to “deny renewal applications" where there are "suitably qualified" Bahamians, living either at home or abroad, available and willing to do the work. "Enough is enough," charged the Prime Minister.

However, Mr Sands said: “These are empty words from the Prime Minister. I want to go on record saying that the Government has approved about $500m worth of new projects by developers throughout the length and breadth of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas in the last six months. The projects are multi-million dollar developments."

Most of these projects have expatriate management who are “senior and auxiliary”, and are brought in to The Bahamas “at will” to do these projects. Mr Sands continued: “So when you ask me about the commentary the Prime Minister is directing the Department of Labour, I find it all just amusing because every time they approve a Heads of Agreement, which I have seen on several of them, they give these developers the right to bring in as many as they desire and get renewals as frequent as they wish.

"This has no impact on the construction industry at all. We expect everything to continue as it has been without a hitch, and without as much as a raker. Just empty words. Show me the evidence.” Previous administrations have threatened at irregular intervals to halt or restrict the issuance of work permits, which raises private sector fears it will not be able to access the skilled labour required for the smooth operation of commerce, although this has had little practical effect.

"This is not against foreigners. We are just pro-Bahamian, that's all," Mr Davis said. "We accept that foreigners are required to fill certain positions, and foreign investors want their key personnel here", but this cannot be at the expense of Bahamian workers.

Acknowledging that the necessary skills, capacity and expertise may not exist in The Bahamas to perform some jobs, he added: "I want to make it clear to employers that in these instances we expect a Bahamian to understudy and be trained for these positions.

"The Department of Immigration and, by extension, the Government should not find itself in a position where employers are asking us to renew a work permit after 10 to 15 years. This is unacceptable, especially when our database at the Department of Immigration and Department of Labour shows that Bahamians are qualified to fill the position.

"I’ve asked the Department of Labour to hold these employers accountable, and the Department of Immigration to deny renewal applications where we have suitably-qualified Bahamians living here or abroad. Enough is enough. A word to the wise should be sufficient."

Mr Sands responded: “That is the wonderful excuse, but when do these positions ever get filled by a Bahamian? The silliness of this all is how come we seem to have solved this situation in the tourism sector, where we don’t bring in foreigners at the highest level in tourism. We have solved that. We have either trained Bahamians or we have brought in foreign managers for a maximum of three years, during which they had to train a Bahamian and then we tell them 'bye'.”

The BCA chief said he is concerned that the construction industry is not being treated with respect when it comes to the way expatriate workers are brought in and given extended work permits when there are scores of Bahamians more than qualified to fill the open positions in the industry.