Bermuda would drop a spanner into its billion dollar economic engine by throwing out highly qualified guest workers next April when the six-year work permit limit rule takes effect.

That concern has led to high-level talks between international business leaders and Government to find an alternative solution. The Island runs the risk of being unable to attract or retain the brightest talent for its booming international economy because of the six-year limit for guest workers, according to a leading business organisation.

And those talented employees would likely seek jobs in rival countries to Bermuda. At the same time potential companies that would have settled in Bermuda will revise their options when they see the problems faced by international business on the Island struggling to attract and keep valued staff under the tight work permit time restrictions.

The danger appears real enough that Labour and Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess has agreed for the Association of Bermuda International Companies to seek solutions that would allow guest workers to pursue unrestrained careers on the Island but not be able to claim long-term residency.

The stakes are high if Bermuda gets it wrong, according to David Ezekiel who chairs the ABIC. He said if employers are unable to provide long-term career paths on the Island then talented individuals will not come to the Island in the first place or will move away “in the second or third year when the six-year limit starts looming”.

Mr. Ezekiel told TheRoyal Gazette: “The impact will be in the businesses here in terms of them not being able to deliver the quality of product they have been delivering simply because they can’t attract the brightest.

“Then, as you go down the road, potential new entrants to the Bermuda market see what is happening with the companies that are here and it will persuade them to consider alternative domiciles, whereas in most cases at the moment Bermuda is the domicile of choice.

“We have always said the competition is ourselves. What we are doing is ensuring that we are the leader in the field and don’t create something that causes someone to say ‘maybe this is not for us’.”

He said the ABIC is “hopeful and optimistic” that by working in collaboration with Government a solution can be found in the near future.

Mr. Ezekiel said he and his team had been impressed by the willingness of Mr. Burgess to listen to the concerns and to agree to work to see if there is an alternative solution that safeguards Government’s objective of preventing long-term guest workers obtaining long-term resident status.

At the annual meeting of the ABIC he told members: “The term limit policy actually has very little to do with jobs and has everything to do with long-term residents and everything to do with immigration.

“The policy is clear that they do not mind one expatriate replacing another expatriate, we just don’t want the same expatriate here.”

Mr. Ezekiel said Bermudian jobs are already protected because of the work permit process that prevents guest workers being employed if there is a qualified local willing and available.

He said: “We have had discussions with the Ministry, and the Ministry and ABIC together have agreed to investigate what alternatives there might be to the term limit procedure.

“We are trying to come up with a way for Government to have protection in the area, provide Bermudians with protection for housing and all the other issues that come along with long-term residence but separate that totally from work permit policy.

“This is a collaborative effort between us and the Ministry. We are looking for a solution to a very serious problem and we are going to do as a partnership between the private sector and the Government.

“It has been the making of this industry and the international business sector in Bermuda and we see no reason at all why we should not continue exactly along those lines.”

Mr. Ezekiel said problems caused by delays in work permits being issued or renewed were to be addressed by the Ministry through increased staffing levels and streamlined systems and procedures being formulated. He said the six-year work permit limit issue was now crystallising as the April 2007 deadline approached.

“We have had constructive dialogue with the Minister where we outlined to him that we do not think the term limit process is appropriate to control work permits, it is more a mechanism to control residency than it is to do anything with job protection,” said Mr. Ezekiel.

“The Minister has said to us Government’s goal is to protect Bermudians and basically said if we can present a well-supported viable alternative he would be open to look at it. That is the process we are now starting.

“It comes down to introducing some process where we have a work permit holder and Government can rest assured they are not creating a long-term residency problem. “It is a process where Government has said ‘Here is our goal, show us an alternative way to achieve it and if it stands up we’ll take a look at replacing the system’.”

Asked how long it might take to come up with an alternative, Mr. Ezekiel said: “We will have high-level experts and high-level legal opinion. We hope to know what the lay of the land looks like early in the next quarter.”