The former employers of an expatriate worker deported for violating the conditions of his work permit have defended their position.Ordered off the Island on April 1, Caetano (Simon) Fernandes told The Royal Gazette he had only been following his boss’s orders.After six years’ work in Bermuda, the 45-year-old food and beverage server was caught by Immigration mixing drinks for guests at the Riddell’s Bay Golf and Country Club — a task which he was forbidden from doing under Immigration rules.Now jobless and struggling back in his native India, Mr Fernandes said: “We in India are not supported by the government for unemployment. We as Indians cannot get jobs even if we are capable [and] experienced so easily as in Bermuda.”Mr Fernandes added that his daughter was now unable to attend college, due to the family’s lack of funds.In a letter to club members dated Monday, club President George Holmes responded to an April 11 story in this newspaper, in which Mr Fernandes claimed he had been ordered to perform jobs that he knew contravened the terms of his permit.Mr Holmes wrote: “It was Management’s position that, while Caetano (‘Simon’) did in fact serve some drinks from behind the bar, this was an inconsequential part of his duties undertaken as a service to the members when a scheduled barman was unavailable or otherwise engaged.“Management believed that this fell within the spirit of Simon’s work permit with some slight leeway allowed in a Members’ Club where service to the members was the first priority.”On the last permit issued to Mr Fernandes, dated October 1, 2011, the conditions listed include “cannot perform bartender duties”.Holders are warned not to engage in “any gainful occupation other than that specified herein”, and are told that breaking the rules will render them “liable to criminal proceedings, and may entail cancellation of this permit”.Mr Fernandes said he was told to work behind the bar by the club’s general manager, Dennis Paul, who assured him he was not breaking the law.He said he was told not to worry after the club was visited by Immigration, one week before undercover officers caught him behind the bar, on December 27, 2011.Riddell’s Bay hired lawyer Craig Attridge to defend Mr Fernandes, and this week’s correspondences states: “The Club engaged two separate lawyers, at a considerable cost to the Company, to argue this position in an attempt to have the ruling changed.“In addition, an outside firm, which deals primarily with Immigration appeals, was also engaged to defend the Club’s position in an attempt to secure continued employment for Simon. This too came at a cost.“However, the Department [of Immigration] held to its position, and Simon was asked to leave the Island.”Mr Fernandes responded: “I personally think that, in spite of knowing that my work permit would not be renewed, they gave me false hopes.”He added: “This letter says they did everything for me but does not say that I was given a lawyer to write what Riddells Bay/Dennis wanted me to write to the Immigration not what the truth was.”The club has maintained that Mr Fernandes at no point worked as a bartender, or was ever scheduled to perform bartending duties.A February 10 letter to Immigration suggests that a club employee had knowingly ordered Mr Fernandes, “as a pawn in some grievance”, to serve drinks to Immigration officers. In his initial statement to Immigration, given on the day officers caught him serving drinks, Mr Fernandes said he was paid $12.42 an hour.Asked to explain why officers witnessed him pouring drinks, alone and behind the bar, Mr Fernandes is recorded as replying: “I don’t know what to say. The fact is I’m just following that the General Manager tells me.”This week’s letter from Riddell’s Bay concludes: “The club regrets that this matter could not have been resolved more amicably to the benefit of all concerned.”