Cabinet approves term limits for expat civil servants
(CNS): After years of political discussions about introducing term limits for expatriate civil servants, just three weeks after taking office, the National Coalition for Caymanians has approved drafting instructions to change immigration legislation to introduce a “rollover” policy for government workers. While rollover is already a long-standing policy for private sector workers, the public sector has been exempt.
According to a press release issued Thursday, the decision to approve the new rules, which are expected to take effect by 1 January 2026, was made at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. It follows “extensive consultation of employers and employees within the Civil Service, and detailed statistical and policy analysis of the implications”, the release said.
This incredibly quick win for the new government, which is likely to be very popular with voters, was a campaign promise made by almost all MPs elected in April on both the government and opposition benches.
In addition to the inequity between the private and public sectors, the issue has caused concern for a number of other reasons. It has become increasingly common for expatriate workers, when they approached the time when they would have to leave the Cayman Islands, to begin applying for government jobs to avoid the PR process and the risk of refusal and rollover.
There have also been growing concerns that by holding onto the jobs in order to remain in Cayman indefinitely, locals were finding it harder to find jobs within government or to earn a promotion.
The new rules go further than rollover in the private sector in that they will require civil servants to take a two-year break before they can return to work for the CIG again. The changes will also designate specific posts in the public sector exclusively for Caymanians to strengthen local career pathways.
The new government plans to introduce “contractual terms requiring the training and development of Caymanian professionals to ensure succession planning” and will look at controversies that have arisen in relation to foreign private sector employees joining the civil service.
“The framework will also incorporate necessary safeguards such as exemptions to uphold the independence of the judiciary to ensure that they remain unaffected in line with the Constitution and also preserving the Governor’s special responsibilities for the Civil Service under Section 55 of the Constitution. There will also be a requirement for any approved exemptions to be reported,” the release stated.
From the date of commencement, term limits will apply to both existing and new non-Caymanian civil servants. Existing non-Caymanian employees will have 1 January 2026 as the start date for counting their term limit.
The release said that this approach would avoid disruption for those working in education, the police, the prison, as well as Children and Family Services, which collectively hire most of the non-Caymanians within the civil service.
Governor Jane Owen said she was satisfied that the amendments respect her constitutional responsibilities, including internal security, and do not impinge upon the governor’s reserved functions under the Constitution. “The proposed exemptions ensure continuity in critical areas while supporting Caymanian advancement,” she said.
Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, who heads up the civil service, said that more would still need to be done to advance local people in the service.
“While it is important to align public sector employment rules with private sector immigration policies, we must accept that term limits alone will not translate into more jobs or the upward mobility for Caymanians in the workplace,” he said, adding that the civil service had “developed an enhanced term limit policy which provides additional mechanisms for hiring Caymanians”.
Manderson further noted, “Additionally, it must be recognised that many essential services, such as provided by our police officers and prison officers, are not available anywhere else in the Islands. Therefore, any changes must be carefully implemented to ensure we remain fully equipped to deliver the services our people depend on to make their lives better.”
Premier André Ebanks said the changes initiated one of the aims of the new government, which was to reform immigration policy. “We are moving words into action,” he said. “These changes are pro-Caymanian, prepared in consultation with the civil service, as our aim is to work in partnership.”
He thanked the governor and the DG “for their effective action in developing these proposed amendments, which align the public service with our national immigration approach while safeguarding key essential services”.
Ebanks said the NCFC will also be moving private sector immigration reform forward as a priority. It is expected that the changes to introduce immigration term limits for non-Caymanians working within the civil service will fall under the Public Service Management Act and Personnel Regulations, which govern the employment of civil servants.
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Category: Government Administration, Politics
Reply to 27/05/2025 @ 8:40am
For your information, 99.9% of the 0.0000000000000001 % of Caymanians living in the States of America are legal residents or citizens. So, unless they commit a criminal act, then, why should they be sent back?
Now HR need to do their job and advertise these contracted positions when they come to renewal every 2 years . I’m not taking about the essential services like teachers / police / etc. I’m talking about the regular admin/ accounting/ compliance roles that there are definitely enough qualified Caymanians to fill. They need to look into the applications, and not just try to keep the contracted worker on. I’ve seen it happen for a fact. Caymanians have applied that are for sure qualified and working in similar roles in the private sector, but no call back received .
Surely every year the Civil Service jobs are advertised for a Caymanian to apply for or each Civil Servant should be teaching a Caymanian to do their job.
Quite right.
There should be the same rules for government employees as for private sector ones.
Either no term limits for anyone (as used to be the case)
or term limits for all.
There is nothing to stop government employees qualifying for permanent residence the same way private sector employees must.
HR managers need to be only born Caymanians Fix it Cayman Coalitions and you will always get elected, For far too long we have been undermined by those who come here with their nepotism Corruption and favoritism. Now they up in arms making threats of retribution and legal recourse to frighten and intimidate the government .No Caymankind foolishness here now people our very existence is at stake its Cayman Reset to just Keep our heads above the waves here now ! Well done Cayman Coalition I did not waste my vote this time on ridiculous Uncle Tom & Johnny candidates Let the ppm ship sail on with her blocked up captain and crew of scalawags soon end up on some reef and hopefully wreck .
Firms with a global presence will outsource HR to another jurisdiction and pay a local agent to manage immigration matters, work permits etc.
I don’t say that to be contentious, however I’ve worked for two companies on island that have already done that and I would suggest more will take that approach.
Listen closely and you will hear the sucking sound of companies closing offices here, relocating staff to other countries and the commercial and residential real estate markets collpasing.
That same excrement was spewed when the rollover policy was implemented in the private sector. And that same excrement was spewed when several jurisdictions placed regulations on certain jobs and businesses restricting them from being held by expats. Once the screechers’ noise died down, it was business as usual but with an increasingly local flavour.
Thank you for trying to use proper English. Well done for making the effort.
However, the original passage contains numerous grammatical issues, awkward phrasing, and some punctuation and capitalization errors. The first sentence, “HR managers need to be only born Caymanians,” is confusingly structured. It would be clearer and grammatically correct to say, “HR managers should be only native-born Caymanians.” This not only improves the sentence’s flow but also conveys the intended meaning more directly.
Following that, the sentence “Fix it Cayman Coalitions and you will always get elected,” lacks clarity. The term “Coalitions” is likely meant to refer to a single political group, in which case the singular form “Coalition” should be used. It also needs better punctuation for clarity. A more coherent version would be, “Fix this, Cayman Coalition, and you will always get elected.” This addresses both grammatical correctness and readability.
The next part reads, “For far too long we have been undermined by those who come here with their nepotism Corruption and favoritism.” Here, the words “Corruption” and “favoritism” follow a list but are inconsistently capitalized. Unless used stylistically, “corruption” should not be capitalised. A comma is also missing between the list items. It would be cleaner to write, “For far too long, we have been undermined by those who come here with their nepotism, corruption, and favoritism.”
The following sentence, “Now they up in arms making threats of retribution and legal recourse to frighten and intimidate the government,” is missing a verb. The phrase “they up in arms” should be corrected to “they are up in arms.” Additionally, there’s an unnecessary space before the period. A corrected version would be, “Now they are up in arms, making threats of retribution and legal recourse to frighten and intimidate the government.”
The next section, “No Caymankind foolishness here now people our very existence is at stake its Cayman Reset to just Keep our heads above the waves here now!” is a run-on sentence with multiple issues. The word “its” should be the contraction “it’s,” meaning “it is,” and “Keep” should not be capitalized mid-sentence. The phrase is also repetitive and muddled. A clearer rewrite might be, “No more Caymankind foolishness—our very existence is at stake. It’s Cayman Reset time, just to keep our heads above the waves.”
Moving on, the sentence “Well done Cayman Coalition I did not waste my vote this time on ridiculous Uncle Tom & Johnny candidates” lacks necessary punctuation. A comma is needed after “Well done” and after “Cayman Coalition.” In formal writing, the ampersand (&) should be replaced with “and.” Also, the term “Uncle Tom” is racially charged and contextually sensitive, so its inclusion may be controversial. A clearer and grammatically correct version would be, “Well done, Cayman Coalition. I did not waste my vote this time on those ridiculous ‘Uncle Tom’ and ‘Johnny’ candidates.”
Finally, the last sentence, “Let the ppm ship sail on with her blocked up captain and crew of scalawags soon end up on some reef and hopefully wreck,” suffers from poor structure and lack of punctuation. “ppm” should be capitalized as “PPM” if referring to the People’s Progressive Movement. The phrase “blocked up” could be hyphenated if meant adjectivally. The sentence needs restructuring for clarity, possibly as, “Let the PPM ship sail on—with her blocked-up captain and crew of scalawags—soon to end up on some reef and, hopefully, wreck.”
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Thank you also for providing a superb example of why so many Caymanians are unemployable. I regret to report that, if most private sector companies gave you a job, their clients would rightly sack the company in a nanosecond.
We want to employ Caymanians, because we don’t want to pay work permit fees or engage with WORC bureaucracy. However, to be employable you must have:
1. Education/qualifications. Self-explanatory.
2. International experience. Clients demand it.
3. Aptitude. We can’t fix stupid.
3. Attitude. We can’t fix lazy.
Those plotting against their own people need to be fired not retired !
Ppm silence is deafening and that folks is exactly why they are and should always be on the back bench Sellouts !!!
A Righteous Act to protect our own people and our children’s future now draws condemnation from those ungrateful and selfish people who have come here from hellish conditions and situations Elsewhere and given our rights ! WOW talk about lack of appreciation and the height of disrespect. You can always leave you know we ain’t holding you here at gun point nor against your will
Be careful what you wish for – unintended consequences will dim your view of what you wanted vs what you had.
The Public Service Management Law needs to be overhauled as well. PoCS must be able to promptly and efficiently put Caymanian low performers on notice at all levels: Shape up or ship out. People who are in senior positions because of tenure, not ability; who are unwilling to train others, who bully the younger professionals verbally or psychologically, who fling all the work at junior staff while they collect big time salaries. Such people are a detriment to the development of a vibrant, dynamic and evolving civil service. This foolishness of Chief Officers saying “I’ve been reliably informed” has to stop. They earn the big money; they should know the subject matter better than any of their staff!
This really should be a push NOW for succession planning.
We have sooo many Caymanian kids coming home from University and even with their hard earned degrees, they cannot break into Civil Service?
We also have a LOT of older QUALIFIED Caymanians that apply for every GIS posted job just to *sigh, find out 3 mos after WORC job lisitng or Gov.ky posting, that an expat has been granted the role. HR wake up!! Shame on you….
These Gov HR Managers are usually of foreign decent. A very large part of the Administrative are of government is Status Holders. What else do you expect? Why do you think in the past several years the foreign work force in gov has ballooned!
Status Holders are Caymanian.
Not necessarily culturally – and the law is supposed to be protecting Caymanian culture.
Caymanian’s don’t care about their past culture – they want easy, free money paid for by financial service fees and stamp duty – mostly coming from expats that you so dearly hate.
Let’s stick to who is legally a Caymanian. Status holders are Caymanian.
And if their status was unlawfully obtained? What then?
Only to non-Caymanians.
C.I.G. now has the opportunity to bring in a new generation of educators who are confident, outspoken, and ready to advocate for their students. With term limits in place, expat teachers can teach without fear, knowing they have the freedom to focus entirely on uplifting the classroom experience. Stronger, more passionate educators are essential for shaping young minds and driving meaningful change in schools.
Additionally, C.I.G. schools must prioritize parent involvement, creating structured opportunities for families to engage in their children’s education. Offering training programs for parents will ensure they have the tools and knowledge to support student success, fostering a more collaborative learning environment.
They SAY they want parental involvement..but Nopee
How exactly does introducing term limits provide a fear free environment for educators?
Just to apply some context here. The nine year term will start on 1st January 2026, meaning it won’t take effect until 2035 which is three governments away.
Which is madness and MUST be reconsidered.
If some one is already here, say for 7 years, then they can stay another 9 years after January 2026 ?
that makes it a total of 16 years. What people think about that ?.