Labour ‘begging’ Governor’s Group to assign them more workers
Minister of Labour and Immigration Vincent Wheatley said he cannot assign anyone to the Labour Department to help alleviate the short staff issue because public service workers are the responsibility of the Deputy Governor’s Office.
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting to address the issues affecting the Labour Department, Wheatley said his team has been advocating for more persons to be assigned to the department to help with the backlog of work-permit processing.
He said this assistance would be appreciated even if it’s just for at least two weeks to ease the burden.
“We’ve been in constant dialogue begging, pleading and asking, ‘please give us staff at Labour. The industry is hurting. We need staff’. We also wanted licenses … I think we got the licenses because we could buy them. However, I cannot assign a single person to Labour. That duty of the public service and its composition is square at the Governor and Deputy Governor’s feet. We can only beg and plead and complain and jump up which we have been doing,” the Labour Minister said.
Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, Joseph Smith-Abbott noted the ministry has been working closely with the Deputy Governor’s Office to see how best they can fix the staffing issue.
“We have indeed identified and brought a few individuals of various public service into Labour to provide some temporary assistance as well. I believe to date we have two or three officers who are in the department that currently can then render assistance to customers. I know that we have plans to augment another one,” Smith-Abbot said.
Only select officers can process new work permits applications
However, Acting Labour Commissioner Michelle McLean corrected the Permanent Secretary and indicated there is only one additional officer to date. The Labour Commissioner continued by addressing questions about the number of people who have the power to approve work permit applications.
“I basically deal with the new work permit applications and the Senior Labour Officer (SLO) who deals with the renewals and if she is not there, there is also somebody else who will fit in. There is the Employment Service Manager and other persons who assist. They do it if I am not available and if the SLO is not available but not concurrently,” McLean said.
The staff-shortage issue at the Labour Department has been a long-documented issue. In an appearance before the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) late last year, Second District Representative Melvin Turnbull said it was ridiculous for a working population of almost 20,000 persons to be assisted by only 20 workers.
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Why am I LOL?
What is a “short staff issue”?
Are there too may dwarves?
Try “staff shortage “.
You’re welcome.
And here I was thinking their sticks were too short….LOL
Blaming the Governors office for their own inefficiencies and incompetence. This has been an issue for months now, why wait to escalate these issues? Perhaps time for Wheatley to step down and let someone competent run the BVI..
Wheatley you had to wait when the fingers start pointing to you, to now blame the governors group. You were destroying the private sector for your own personal beliefs and now you want to blame someone else. that is not the only government department that is short staffed. You better not run for election again, you are a disappointment.
Wheatley…
Which one is it? Staff shortages or deliberately delaying the process to “protect” the people.
Perhaps you should start with telling the trust, it will make you sound more trustworthy.
So a working population of 20,000 and 20 labour employees yet 4,000 govt employees. Hmmmm
How can Ministers BLATANTLY LIEEEEEEEEEEE and nothing is done about it? The Premier is always flip flopping and on this subject, the Minister came out publicly stating that there is NO BACKLOG AT LABOUR but rather a system has been implemented to do proper audits and ensure that locals are placed in jobs. Now that the truth has come out he seeks to blame the Governor’s Group. If the hard headed VG jacka** listened to people and not try the online nonsense during the peak of applications this would not have happened. He knows full well they are applying their own rules to renewals and new applications hence the delay. A complete f**king waste of time all of them. Election needs to be tomorrow.
4000 Government employees, but at least 60% of them are non-performing, just on the payroll at whatever they were being paid when they retired because their pension plan hasn’t been funded. Orlando admitted in his first term that it was 300 million in arrears, no telling what it is now. Some Government is going to have to grab this bull and switch all Government employees over to Social Security, give SS a check, and get them off the payroll. This will help all recipients of SS as they will demand a real retirement income instead of the pittance currently given. It will also allow Government to reduce their expenses resulting in their ability to borrow under the financial protocols.
Well said. Can I give you a hundred votes!
The executive summary of an efficiency study commissioned by a past administration indicated that the government was carrying about 30% more staff that it needed to conduct its functions (back then).
When the Minister was asked what was his take away from the meeting, what were his talking points for remedies, from what he’d heard, what were his solutions, like a good politician, he stalled. Then promised something in a week…
The person responsible for permit renewals is really called SLO? Come on that cant be true? So hilarious!!
We had seen enough failure from this minister yet the Premier has his most vote getter sitting on a back bench. Time for her to get an opportunity….I am not going to vote for her again she might end up useless again warming a back bench..
Only in government we can have an employee who is indispensable – if they absent or they go lunch – everything stop. this s**tty mentality got to stop.
More workers is not the solution…Its about bad attitude and the lack of team work, dont care about people. 6This thing about short staff is the usual excuse for failure..
This is one strategy Weatley is using to rid the BVI of expats. If he would only realize that belongers believe work is slavery therefore they won’t
I am a BVIslander and I work my behind off everyday. I also worked in the service for 28 years and took home work every night and weekends. This generalising bull crap about BVIslanders and Belongers not wanting nor caring nor interested in working is bull crap. Why don’t all you hard working visitors go home and check our online news every so often to see that life on these beautiful islands will not suffer over your absence.
For the life of me I can’t understand why persons who move here for a better life finds it necessary to call down locals every single day or every chance they get. I went to College in America and their are certain dynamics there with regards to workers and students, but did I say international students and expat workers were better or gained better grades? It was not necessary even though I had the knowledge. Please, please, it really makes you look stupid and unprofessional to be competing with someone in their home country for brownie points and to make yourself feel important. You came, you earned, you stored every cent you could and then you moved on for greener pastures or you apply for Belonger status and you stay among us. So does that then make you a lazy good for nothing? Please humble yourselves. There are good and bad in every country and truth be told your country probably has just as many lazy people as mine does.
Boss; cross train your ministry, raise their pay and demand better performance and discipline those underperforming.