Government is to make businesses provide an employment profile to find out if their hiring practices are skewed against Bermudians.

Labour and Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess said there had been a large amount of complaints from locals losing out to spouses of Bermudians or Permanent Resident Certificate holders.

He said some people mistakenly thought those groups were equivalent to Bermudians.

He said: “This is not so! I must remind employers there is no category of residents that can be selected for a job over a suitably qualified Bermudian.”

Construction and landscaping companies, when applying for work permits, are already required to submit company profiles listing the number of Bermudians and non-Bermudians that are employed by them.

Mr. Burgess said the procedure was introduced because of complaints from companies hiring mainly Bermudians that they were losing jobs to companies that hired mainly non-Bermudians on lower wages.

“As a result, those companies with mainly Bermudians were frequently forced to lay off their employees because they were not getting the work.

“To discourage these unfair business practices, we started to demand an equal ratio of Bermudians to non-Bermudians.”

He said many of those employers argued that Bermudians would not apply to their advertisements.

“So they were instructed to look for Bermudian apprentices before they would be granted work permits.

“You will be amazed at how motivated these employers became when told that the approval of their work permits depended on the recruitment of Bermudian apprentices.

“There are very few who have not been able to recruit at least one or two Bermudians apprentices. One company has recently hired 12 Bermudians! This particular company has now added to the contracts of his non-Bermudian employees a requirement that they must train Bermudians.

“When four of his work permit holders refused to do so, he sent them packing. While I must respect his privacy and not name him, I wish to assure him, and any other employer who adopts the same approach, that we will grant him work permits as long as he demonstrates such a positive attitude towards his Bermudian employees and cultivates that culture within his company.”

The Minister reminded employers the existing policy showed the hiring hierarchy should be:

[obox] Bermudian

[obox] non-Bermudian spouse (including the widow or widower) of a Bermudian

[obox] divorced parent of a Bermudian

[obox] Working Resident’s Certificate holder or permanent resident

[obox] non-Bermudian with a qualifying Bermudian connection

[obox] other non-Bermudians.

Mr. Burgess continued: “Because of the number of complaints we have been receiving, we will soon be requiring employers to provide us with a company profile and organisation chart identifying the Bermudians, spouses of Bermudians, Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) holders and work permit holders and their role in the company.

“Where it appears the numbers are skewed towards spouses, PRCs and/or work permit holders rather than Bermudians, or we receive specific complaints about the hiring practices of a company, we will be asking that company to provide a report of their recruiting and development practices specifically as it relates to the hiring of Bermudians.”

And he said Immigration spent an inordinate amount of time investigating complaints about employers who lay off Bermudians or make them redundant while retaining work permit holders in the same job category.

“Not acceptable! Bermudians in the same category are always the last to be laid off or made redundant,” he said.

“Alternatively, an employer cannot increase the job responsibilities of a work permit holder in a different job category to include the job of a Bermudian that he or she has laid off or made redundant.”

And Mr. Burgess re-iterated his intention to crack down on people working illegally or working outside the terms of their work permit.

“We have found masons painting, (which by the way is a closed category); masons working as carpenters, carpenters tiling floor; gardeners building houses; steel erectors with a work permit with one employer on a specific job site working for another employer in a totally different location; persons claiming to be spouses of Bermudians who are not married at all.

“It amazes me when we discover the offenders; their employers claim that they do not know the rules.”

He said a five-man task force had been set up this year to investigate immigration abuses in the construction industry.

The group, said Mr. Burgess, had been “extremely successful in finding illegal aliens with no permission to work, many of whom were posing as spouses of Bermudians with no proof that they were married to anyone; persons who were working outside the terms of their work permits; and persons who have a work permit for one employer but working for another.”

He said those employees with a valid work permit who are working outside the terms of their work permit will be asked to stop work immediately and are likely to be asked to settle their affairs and leave Bermuda.

Any work permit applications that have been submitted by the offending employer, whether they are asking for new employees or the renewal of an existing work permit, will be placed on hold or refused outright.

He said companies would suffer work permit delays or even refusals if they didn’t advertise jobs properly.

“Let me cite one example that I have seen in recent advertisements that is sure to guarantee a refusal.

“Employers will state in their advertisements that the person must possess a driver’s licence or, on occasion, their own transportation.

“Then these same employers will sometimes have the temerity to submit an application for a work permit holder who has never been to the Island so would have neither a Bermuda driver’s licence, having never driven on our roads, nor their own transportation.

“I would advise all employers to remove this requirement from their advertisements or they will be guaranteed an immediate refusal when they submit the applications.”

And he said another example of an advertisement doomed to failure is the requirement for a nanny to speak a second language.

“While there are circumstances under which the knowledge of a second language may be necessary, the requirement to know a second language cannot be used to exclude an otherwise suitably qualified Bermudian nanny from a job.”

He said Bermuda had a number of language schools and tutors that can be used to teach children another language.

“And, if it is the parents who cannot speak English, then our policy requiring work permit holders to speak English will apply.”