The Island Government has established a tripartite committee with representation of business, labour and government to monitor and evaluate the revised policy and make recommendations with respect to any adjustments that should be made.
One can say that the revised labour policy is a work in progress and the same can be said for the Cayman Islands which are also going through a similar exercise. We may need to learn from other islands about their experiences since they also have to import labour in order to service their economic engine.
Cayman Islands immigration and labour officials have come to the realization that the way they have been trying to balance the work force is not working. According to Chief Immigration Officer Franz Manderson, there are approximately 25,800 active work permits, including temporary and government contracts, held by foreigners in Cayman (population is approx. 48.000).
Manderson estimates some 11,000 of those permits or contracts were held by Jamaicans, another 2,900 by Filipinos, and about 2,000 by citizens of the United Kingdom.
The majority of work permit or contract holders in Cayman come from just seven areas; Jamaica, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Honduras and India. Workers from the rest of the world's countries make up less than one-fifth of all the work permits held in Cayman.
Mr. Manderson said that, previously, immigration officials and regulatory board members have tried to even out demographics in the work force by policing the hiring within various companies. For instance, if Romanian nationals occupied 90 per cent of the jobs at a particular business that company would be encouraged to hire people who were not from Eastern Europe.
Manderson added that some flexibility would be required rather than setting arbitrary limits on either total numbers of workers from a certain country, or the types of jobs which can be held. There are also some mixed reviews with respect to national hiring quotas.
The Cayman's are introducing a new round of employment regulations which entails that companies that employ work permit holders will soon be required to become accredited by the Cayman Islands Immigration Department.
The policy initiative is to streamline work permits and immigration policies with teams dedicated to the financial services and tourism industries, and establish a third group to manage other sectors. Eventually the teams will process more than 500 per week.
The Immigration Accreditation System, as it is called, will also create separate tiers of rankings for businesses, from those that are least compliant with the country's Immigration regime to those that are most active in the community and do the best job at training and promoting Caymanians.
Under the initial plan, all businesses in Cayman that hold Trade and Business Licenses and that employ at least one work permit holder will have to fill out a form that will be available on the Immigration Department website. The form will judge the business on six separate criteria, which include: compliance with Cayman's licensing regulations, talent development programmes, employment practices, support for community programmes, Caymanian business ownership, and the company's activity in creating new job opportunities.
Based on the information provided, and research by Immigration Department officials, the companies will then either be accredited or not. If they are granted accreditation, they will then be ranked in one of six tiers by Immigration. If companies are not accredited they will not be able to get new work permits, or have any current work permits renewed. Higher-ranked employers will be given certain benefits under the islands' Immigration regime. The ranking will be based on a points system.
The rankings in the tier system are as follows: Probationary accreditation: This accreditation level is the lowest one, which confirms a company is meeting all legal requirements to operate in Cayman, including providing adequate health care and pension benefits to all its employees. These companies can receive work permit renewals only; they cannot apply for new permits.
Approximately 4,000 companies in the Cayman Islands will be affected by the new Immigration Accreditation System. The idea of the system is to firstly, help weed out unscrupulous employers that are abusing their workers and abiding by the laws of the land, and secondly, it would reward companies that are good community partners.
Companies that do not employ any work permit holders and individual households that employ people like domestic helpers or cooks will not need to apply for accreditation.
The St. Maarten Island Government's tripartite evaluation committee should look into the experience of the Cayman Islands and other islands within the region in order to develop a system that is most suitable to our own labour market. The ultimate goal is to ensure a proper balance in our workforce.
Roddy Heyliger
