Managers of cleaning and landscaping companies have claimed Government is trying to force them to hire convicted criminals over expats.

Immigration Minister David Burch yesterday announced he was putting a "moratorium" on all work permit applications for masons, carpenters, landscape gardeners and cleaners.

It will be in place until he is satisfied that Bermudians aren't "deliberately being thwarted" in the workplace.

Employers have been required to consult with the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU), the Department of Labour and Training and Government's Hustle Truck before submitting work permit applications since last year a practice some companies have taken issue with.

The manager of a landscaping company said she could not afford to employ people with criminal convictions, especially theft.

"We have been forced to hire people from the Hustle Truck. We can't take people with criminal records. We're putting them on properties and people don't want them on their properties.

"They can't be making us hire people from the Hustle Truck with convictions for theft."

She suggested Government hire such persons to work in the parks and on the docks.

The woman said she had a mix of nationalities on staff. She added that although she would love to have more Bermudians she has found it hard to keep them.

"'It's too hot,' [they say]. They work one week but they don't come back the next.

"You can't run a business like that. Please send us Bermudians that want to work in the heat. We'll take them but not people from the Hustle Truck that have criminal records."

She continued: "I think Government is being very unfair about it. I think they need to rethink this. What they do with the Hustle Truck is fantastic but I think Government needs to deal with it, not the private companies."

A manager of a cleaning and landscaping company agreed there was a risk placing convicts in clients' empty homes.

"Some of [the Hustle Truck people] don't have licences. Some of them might have criminal records. To put somebody in a position like that when he's got a criminal conviction for theft, people wouldn't be happy. Labour and Training sent me people of no fixed abode they don't want to work, they don't care. One guy came in with a beer bottle.

"It's quite simple. The law states we put it in the paper and we do that. When no one applies, no one applies. Then they tell us to go to [the Department of] Labour and Training, the union, and ask them if they have anybody.

"It's not my place to go around knocking on people's doors to see if they need a job. My thing is simple. You put it in the paper and it's all there. That's it."

The man said he had one Bermudian supervisor who was a great employee but started taking business from the company after hours.

"We might hire a local guy and he's done in a couple days. At the end of the day, the people who are going to suffer are the clients because their properties aren't getting done how they want it to be done.

"I would love to hire locals. For Government to force this down our throats... it's wrong."

Senator Burch said in June 2007 that Hustle Truck workers included those who had been victims of "past history discrimination" because of a criminal record and "those with numerous other social problems".