Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Several local business people and especially small restaurant owners are feeling the ‘seven-year rollover pinch’ as their customers are being made to leave the country, some entrepreneurs are telling Cayman Net News.

One person who owns a business on Mary Street said that profits have fallen and her finances are now in the red as her customers leave the Cayman Islands.

“Since they sent away the Jamaicans I have lost a lot of money,” said the small business owner who did not want to be named. “Nobody is coming here that often. Right now my biggest sales come from the cruise ship passengers and they don’t come here regularly.”

A number of people said that the rollover policy has no positive effect on businesses – especially those that are supported by Jamaican nationals.

“Most businesses are told not to hire any more Jamaicans because they wont get a work permit, so, it is not like they are bringing back people who would support us,” another businesswoman said.

Echoing the comments of women in business, one man who owns a cook shop on Eastern Avenue said that his business is successful because the community spends and has been supporting it.

“To remove them is bad for small businesses and the economy of the Islands on the whole,” he said.

“There are days when I make less than $100 and I have staff to pay and overheads to meet,” he added.

A few small business operators said that they are planning to close the doors of their businesses if things do not pick up. Some of them who are also expatriates said that they would go back to their respective countries and continue what they were doing there, if the situation does not improve.

These complaints are just the latest of the grievances being aired by various sectors of the society as the economy has reportedly suffered negatively as a result of the roll over.

Different divisions in the financial, legal and medical sectors have brought pressure on the Government to exempt workers in their industries. The Government has said that it cannot make broad sweeps exempting people from the roll over policy, although all Government employees are exempt.

However, the Leader of Government Business Hon Kurt Tibbetts has said that certain employees could be exempted from the controversial seven-year rollover policy based on global and local demand for their professions by Cabinet in a proposed amendment to the existing Immigration Law.

This new provision was raised by Mr Tibbetts in his speech to the House at the State opening of Parliament and he said it would be placed before the legislative Assembly in July.

He said Cabinet could designate as exempted, “particular categories of employees in particular industries or sectors of the economy.”

Such designation would enable exempted employees to remain in the country on work permits for nine years and then to apply for permanent residency. Permanent residency provisions are also to be amended to create what he described as a “level playing field”.

Mr Tibbetts said that Government recognised that Cayman’s prime financial services, tourism and development sectors could only thrive, “if they are able to continue to attract and retain quality employees.”

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