CITA to lobby Immigration

Karie Bergstrom, President
of the Cayman Islands
Tourism Association (CITA)

Tuesday,  January 10, 2006

Numerous businesses in the tourism sector have been caught unprepared when they received letters that key staff members have reached their seven-year term limit and must leave the Island. 

These organisations thought they had applied for these positions to be exempted when they filled out the Key Employee section on the Business Staffing Plan application. 

In actuality, the application for an exemption is made by a separate letter that is submitted along with the application for a grant or renewal.

The president of the Cayman Islands Tourism Association (CITA) Karie Bergstrom said that because the Immigration Law limits the employer to only submit an application to exempt an employee at the time the work permit is renewed or granted, these businesses are stuck. 

“There are a lot of businesses that are facing sending people that hold key positions home because there was a lot of confusion over the exempted positions,” said Ms Bergstrom. “Although businesses should take ownership of the work permit process, a lot of people were caught off guard. There are many businesses that might have forgotten to apply because there was a massive hurricane and they were still in recovery mode so it was the last thing on their minds.”

She explained that this issue already compounds the staffing issues companies face with recruitment and shortage of housing. Consequently, CITA has initiated a labour survey to find out what is the impact of this provision. 

The information from that survey will then be used as a platform to lobby the Government for changes to the Immigration Law to get a handle on the implications for the tourism sector.

“We want to know how far and deep the problem is and how it impacts the industry. 

Part of the problem is that the law is strict and the hands of the Board of are tied so the issue is within the law itself. 

“Then the (CITA) Board of Directors will meet and analyse the information and use that to go to the Leader of Government Business and lobby for some changes to the law. A simple change such as the physical time to apply for an exempted employee to not be related to the renewal would be a huge help,” she said. 

She explained that one factor is that often a company does not know an employee should be exempted until he has worked for the company for a while. 

For example, an employee is hired as a dive master and then later becomes a boat captain and then becomes a manager and it is at this time the company realises this employee should be exempted. But by that time, the employee is in the final year of his work permit and it is too late. 

She believes that a number of employers may resort to asking for one-year work permits instead of multiple year permits to work around the issue of only applying for an exemption at renewal. 

The Chairman of the Work Permit Board David Ritch said he is aware of this issue and it is being addressed by the Immigration Review Team that was set up to review the immigration law. 

The Immigration Review Team is currently holding marathon meetings with the Cabinet on these proposed amendments.

“One recommendation on the table is to allow employers to apply for someone to be designated as exempt,” said Mr Ritch. “It is just one of those things that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

He said the meetings with the Cabinet are being fast-tracked as many of these immigrations issues are considered urgent.

shurna@caymannetnews.com

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