The Department of Immigration's role is not just to protect Bermudians, but to ensure people are not taken advantage of when they come to work in Bermuda, said representatives from the Department at an Immigration Forum at the Chamber of Commerce last week.

The forum, the second of its kind held to allow the general public to meet face-to-face with Immigration officials to have an informal discussion on Department issues, focused on work permits on Thursday.

Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister was present and available for questions, as were Chief Immigration Officer Dr. Martin Brewer, Assistant Chief Immigration Officer Rozy Azhar and corporate services manager Esan Frederick.

Most of those present were involved in human resources, observed Ms Azhar, and although the session had been oversubscribed it ended up only being about 75 percent full.

Those attending were told a work permit holder is allowed to make one voluntary job change every five years.

Jobs changes that were not the decision of the employee, for instance if a company closed down or a position was made redundant, were not counted.

If, however, an employee is suffering some sort of abuse at the hands of their employer, they will be referred to the Department of Industrial and Labour Relations.

If that Department confirms the employee has a bona fide complaint, they will be allowed to change jobs even if they have already changed once within the five-year period.

"These people (the Department) know these companies really well," explained Mr. Lister. "There's only about 500 or 600 that hold work permits. They know if a company is actually a good company and the employee is bad, or if the company is bad and the employee is good."

Often work permit holders get trapped into a job with an employee whose behaviour towards their staff is unacceptable and would not be stood for by Bermudians, he said.

An example of such an instance is when an employee arrives in Bermuda to take on a job for which they are being drastically underpaid. Explaining that to a Canadian, a job paying $50,000 per year with no taxes sounds like heaven, Mr. Lister said expatriates come here only to find that the standard pay for their job in Bermuda could be around $80,000, and that they are being cheated. From April 1 on, therefore, when companies apply for a work permit they will also be required to send in a statement of employment with details such as salary.

Immigration will then check across the board to see what other companies are paying employees in similar positions and if the salary is drastically low the work permit will be refused.

The reverse does not stand if an employee is being paid more than the norm, said Mr. Lister.

More information on work permits can be found by calling the Department of Immigration or checking the department's website at www.immigration.gov.bm.