Chamber of Commerce president Phil Barnett has accused Government of sending mixed messages on work permit term limits by reneging on a promise to consider exemptions for employees at the bottom end of the career ladder.

And he said the policy, which sends home most expatriate workers after six years, is hurting Bermudian-owned businesses.

This week Immigration Minister David Burch said the term limit policy was "here to stay" and he accused employers of abusing the process by applying for pot washers and kitchen porters to be key employees.

But the previous Minister Derrick Burgess had said it was open for employers to make a case for their staff to stay, whatever their level. In December 2006 Mr. Burgess said key workers could be found "at all levels and in all areas of a business" and that as well as senior management roles, key staff could include technical, professional, clerical and service staff.

And Mr. Barnett said he sat in a seminar hosted by the assistant chief immigration officer two years ago who had also indicated all types of employees could be considered for key employee status. But now more and more employers are saying exemptions were not being granted which meant newer staff were looking at other options rather than lingering only to get the boot when they didn't get key employee status.

Mr. Barnett told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "It is a completely mixed message that has come from two successive Cabinet ministers in charge of that portfolio.

"That's a very serious concern we will take up — that was not what was represented by his predecessor. I am sure he realises his phone is going to start ringing as we ask for meetings to clarify that position.

"What frustrates me as a small-business owner, and other small business owners, is the sense that just because we don't have CEO's and super-high degree holding individuals that these staff aren't important. But they are important — they do good work, they do hard work."

Mr. Barnett said people should be concerned about the impact on Bermudian-owned businesses of axing staff.

"We all talk about the rights of Bermudians — where are our rights as Bermudians?

"I know many, many employers are going absolutely out of their way to find Bermudians, recruit Bermudians, steal Bermudians to advance and train Bermudians. And the opportunity of success for a Bermudian here have never been better."

Sen. Burch had talked during his speech at the Chamber of Commerce AGM on Thursday about how business needs to give more.

But Mr. Barnett responded: "Well, business is saying let us hang on a second, we have been giving, we have been moving Bermudians through. Now businesses are looking for something back."

He said employer organisations would begin surveying their members to get facts on the issue after hearing that key employee applications were being turned down all over — including in the hospitality industry from chefs all the way up to general managers.

And he said refusals were being given to lawyers, accountants, people in international business and in construction.

Government needed to come up with facts on the claims of disenfranchisement of Bermudians who claimed they weren't being hired or promoted, said Mr. Barnett.

He said term limits had a wide-ranging impact on recruiting and keeping employees.

"We are the canary in the coal mine and we are warning of potentially dangerous times ahead.

"Government have to appreciate there needs to be an objective review of how term limits are affecting or will affect business."

He said expats knew they had no long-term residency rights.

"So where is the benefit of, after six years, replacing someone with another work permit individual who then has to integrate themselves?

"It seem counter intuitive to remove people from the island who have been able to fit in and have become Bermudianised in their habits, the groups, churches and societies they get involved with, actively promoting Bermuda to be a better place just to replace them with a brand new person."

He said the new influx of recruits might be coming from nations with a culture which did not match Bermuda's.

Sen. Burch said that when the term limit policy was introduced in 2001 it was to address the problem of long-term residents who were allowed to work and reside in Bermuda for extended periods of time, some for more than 20 years.

At that time there were 8,000 non-Bermudians in the workforce. These in turn had 4,000 dependents between them.

He said: "The pattern of employment in Bermuda is such that half the non-Bermudians who arrive in any given year are still in Bermuda five years later. Of those, half (a quarter of the original arrivals) are still here ten years later.

"Of those in turn, half (one eighth of the original entrants) are still in Bermuda after 15 years, and so on."

Mr. Barnett wondered if expats were going at that rate why it was necessary to turf out the 'one eighth' when there were no real benefits to Bermudians.

"Because Bermudians are not being limited in their upward mobility or in their chances to get ahead. Very possibly by making it difficult to recruit people some of these engine room jobs are going to be shipped overseas."

But Mr. Barnett also had some words of praise for Sen. Burch.

He said: "I will say that this minister has done every thing he possibly can to meet with us, he's listened carefully and we appreciated greatly the efforts he's been making."

An Association of Bermuda International Companies spokesman declined to talk about the issue ahead of meetings with the Minister while Bermuda Employers Council head Graham Redford also did not wish to comment yesterday.

Previously the BEC has said the policy would fuel the trend to outsourcing and many employees were not hanging around to find out if Government would let them stay and were seeking other opportunities elsewhere.

One business head told this paper yesterday that it was difficult to get new recruits because they saw their advancement would be limited by the term limit policy.

And one Bermudian international business chief, also speaking on conditions of anonymity, said that Bermuda was an increasingly difficult to sell to potential employees as people preferred to stay put or move to the Cayman's where it was possible to buy a home.

He added of the term limits policy: "They are trying to clean out as many people as they can. It's a political agenda."