Undue hardship! Opposition Leader slams long wait for work permits
Opposition Leader Marlon Penn has decried the suffering faced by business owners as a result of the lengthy period taken by the Labour Department to process work permits lately.
He noted that some have been made to wait for as long as six months to be approved.
“I have expressed publicly in the media already my displeasure particularly with the concerns regarding the length of time it takes for work permits to be processed by the Labour Department and the undue hardship that places on businesses,” Penn stated at an Opposition press briefing yesterday.
Penn noted that the issue was especially critical at a time when businesses have been inactive or have had limited activity over the last 18 months and have had to get their staff in place to capitalise on the tourism season that the BVI is experiencing now.
Competing narratives about reason for delays
According to the Eighth District Representative, there have also been competing narratives from government officials, particularly the Labour Minister Vincent Wheatley, on the real reason for the extensive delays.
Minister Wheatley previously noted in one instance that due diligence being done on permits has been the main cause of the delay. He said this was in order to ensure that work permits are not issued to expats while locals sit around unable to get jobs in their own country.
It has also been portrayed that there are significant staffing issues within the Labour Department, forcing a backlog of permit applications and the subsequent delay being experienced.
Just recently at a press conference, Premier Andrew Fahie again stated that the unprecedented number of new work permit applications being received by the department was as a result of the unexpected rebounding and resurgence of the BVI’s robust economy, calling it a ‘good-bad problem’ for the territory to have.
“The Minister needs to make up his mind on what it is. But what it is, is mismanagement and his inability to manage this issue and get these employees in place for the businesses to move forward. It is creating additional and undue hardship to businesses who need at this time, critical workforce and the economy that needs that workforce in place to manage a billion-dollar economy that is the BVI,” Penn said.
The Opposition Leader urged that the situation be brought under control and argued that by the time some of the work permits were finally approved, the tourism season would be over and business owners will not be able to staff their operations.
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Should we have policies in place to protect the local workforce? Absolutely.
Should we give locals first options to apply for jobs prior to a work permit being issued? Absolutely.
But what is happening now is absolutely ridiculous. In so many cases there are literally zero BVI applicants for all sorts of posts. Then it should be a matter of a few weeks to get through.
Now the labour department is only hurting local businesses under the nonsense argument that they are protecting locals. There are no applicants, so nothing to protect!
Just move on and do some work and let business do work as well!
Smacks of isolationism and racism.
UN needs to investigate
@Jah – The UN (UNICEF) wrote a report a few years ago including a look at the BVI’s labour and work permit scenario. They compared our work permit programme to indentured servitude.
Very appropriate.
This minister is playing politics with people livelihood. We only have 6 months active business in the territory . Imagine your business remains closed for that six months because of the minister irrational decision. Every business owner is going bankrupt.
Business going away. By the millions to USVI.
Thanks government
The entire Caribbean is booming. BVI is just making a mess of tourism.
Dishounrable penn will do worse.
I don’t think so. I know he has management skills, might be weak in other areas, but that can be filled with others who are strong in what he is weak. Everyone use this methodology, to foster a stronger organization.
Always reclassify your thoughts and don’t look at the book and think you could ready it by looking at the cover. Turn the pages and see if there are courage like fire, strength like storm. Each man have the opportunity to invite the holy spirit for guidance.
BVI GA TOO MUCH PPL NOT WORKING BOTH LOCALS AND EXPATS…THEY NEED CUT OFF THESE NEW PERMITS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE..TOO MANY PERSONS NOT WORKING OR WORKING AS PART TIME.
Mr opposition trickster you are just a user of expats just like your indigenous brothers and sisters. Just stop it. Find another election gimmick. Don’t try to fool the expats because you power hungry. You don’t even like expats. Vincent Wheatley deal with more expats in vg than you would ever deal
With in you lifetime.
Business want to exploit workers so they want to import them. Too many school children on the streets after graduation. Businesses need to be pressured to hire them.
Let’s pressure people and tell them who to hire in their business.
Let’s see what type of business will do well with kids coming from school only.
By the way, who is going to live in your way too expensive appartments?
What good is it to the country if a company only employ expats who they exploit, paying them less than minimum wage they cannot even pay rent, buy groceries and pay utility bills.
Get rid of VW, who has no political experience & is ego maniac & you will see real progress
Government need to make permits ready in a week and people would be more happy
What good is it to the country if a company only employ expats who they exploit, paying them less than minimum wage they cannot even pay rent, buy groceries and pay utility bills.
Dot dot dot
In my firm people have been waiting since September 2021 for their work permit renewals and some had 3or 4 extensions. Is it a way of earning extra money? I also know of workers who have to pay for their own work permit renewals and extension and they cant afford it plus they keep having to time off work and then don’t get paid. There have been lots of excuses given for the delays. Last year it was the farce with the delays of trying to get all of the NHI, Inland revenue and SSB certificates for the renewals – which took months. The Government needs to sort this out because we are all getting fed up of being treated like this.
Why can the Government issued 3 year work permits? It would save all the renewal work. There was talk about it years ago. In Cayman they issue 5 year ones.
What with the work permits renewals delay and the rising costs of food its not surprising that people are looking for jobs elsewhere. Some people may not like expats working here but without them who would do the work? And the Government would lose money from the work permit. When I renew my insurance I do it on computer, Why cant we renew our work permits like that?
I know they are taking time because people pay people to do all the work permits work and they get done first. So all the poor people have to wait for their ones.