Local companies that hire guest workers will soon be required to provide training programmes for Bermudians when phase two of the new work permit policy goes into effect.

Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy said that while a number of job categories are restricted to non-Bermudians, “there should be an element of training included in policy”.

“It has been an issue for decades but not included in policy,” said the Minister.

“Different government administrations have talked about it, but it has not actually been written into policy.”

His comments were made in the wake of ten redundancies announced by Fairmont Hamilton Princess last week.

“In fairness, a lot of these hotels have training programmes in place but perhaps they can do more. And I think that’s were Jobs Board is helpful.”

With the Jobs Board he said: “Rather than just looking at the newspaper, you could go on to Jobs Board.

“Right now it’s voluntary but phase two of the work permit policy will make it a requirement that people have to advertise on the Jobs Board.”

Eventually he said the data will create a database over time of positions that have been advertised.

“Maybe some will get taken by guest workers but you will be able to go back in history (based on the database) and say that position is probably going to come up in two years time for someone looking for a position in two years time to fill.

“The beauty of this is when you’re talking about tailored ads, if that ad comes up again and they say ‘we want four years experience’, then you know there’s something wrong,” he said.

“We find that on occasions now, but this will also help the consumer, if you will, to look back themselves and see what has happened over a period of time.”

Asked whether he will be the one to get firm training conditions written into policy he said: “That is happening now.”

But he said it may have been fear that stopped it from happening when asked what does it say about Bermuda’s leadership over the years.

“I think that there may have been a fear to actually write something into policy about proper training. Different companies have different types of programmes.

“We’re not going to say ‘this is the training programme you must put in place’.

“The road that I’m going down is to say ‘here’s the training programme, or you have a certain number permits for example, you have to have a training programme in place that’s measurable’.

“Ultimately, I’d like to have someone that’s able to go in and do a mini-audit, or at least a desktop audit, to say ‘is the training programme working’.

“That’s no more intrusive than what goes on now in international business companies from internal Bermuda Monetary Authority audits on internal financial audits.

“It could be done at the same time and it would take half a day for a desktop audit,” said Sen Fahy.

“In other words, they submit the paperwork to someone who examines it at their table, they don’t need to necessarily go into the companies but they can at least examine whether these programmes are effective.

“The biggest issue that we have in Bermuda right now, and this has happened over many years, is that over time those training positions where young people would be able to get involved in a business have simply gone somewhere else.

“They may be gone to India, they’ve gone to the Philippines for outsourcing because it’s cheaper and that is a phenomenon that’s going on across the world. It’s a global phenomenon.”

He cited jobs in information technology as “one of the big ticket items that you see go offshore”.

“They’re low level accountancy areas where it’s the day-to-day bookkeeping — they send that stuff offshore. And what we need to bring back is some of these job entry level positions,” said Sen Fahy.

“If we can’t bring them here, then what we’re working with, and we’ve made this clear, we’re working with our business partners to say ‘what we’d really like you to do is if the position is not in Bermuda, then hire a Bermudian and send them overseas’.

“So they get that job experience, they come back with the skill set that’s required for the next step up.”

Included in the ten workers who were told their jobs no longer exist last week were three bar porters employed in entry level positions.

Under current regulations there are a number of restricted job categories barred to non-Bermudians.

Those categories include bartenders, bank tellers, carpet installers, commercial cleaners, and several others.

Conditions of employment relating to restricted categories dictates that all applications for work permits, except those from spouses of Bermudians, are “expected to inform their non-Bermudian employees of these terms and conditions and obtain written confirmation that the employees understand and accept these conditions without qualification”.

The terms specify that “employment must be clearly defined in terms of a specific position”.

“No career prospects, promotions or long-term employment may be offered as inducement to prospective employees. Work permits granted to non-Bermudians will normally be for a maximum period of 12 months.”

Positions are required to be “regularly advertised to ensure that Bermudians are given every opportunity to apply. And employers must “continue to provide training opportunities in order to attract Bermudian applicants”.

However, the regulations stipulate that in some cases, “the business may be asked to submit regular monitoring of the training, by any officer of the Ministry nominated by the Minister”.

New work permits are also subject to “evidence being submitted in support of genuine efforts made to find and, where practical, to train a Bermudian to fill the job”.

Applications for new work permits are also required to contain a statement that the department has been consulted, meaning, the “employer has requested a list of qualified Bermudians for the post in question”.

According the to the regulations, “the statement must also include the results of such consultation”.

New penalties for work permit violations that carry maximum fines of $10,000 and other requirements go into effect on April 1.