‘Rollover’ on the cards for CIG expat workers
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government is considering introducing term limits, also known as ‘rollover’, for foreign contracted staff in the civil service, placing them on an equal footing with employees in the private sector who are required to leave after ten years if they don’t secure permanent residency. Officials have confirmed that Deputy Governor Franz Manderson has been asked to assess the potential implications if such a policy were implemented.
The chief officer in the Portfolio of the Civil Service, Gloria McField-Nixon, told CNS via email that no official policy yet exists, but senior civil servants have been asked to submit recommendations to facilitate Cabinet’s deliberations and the legislative drafting process. She said that information had been shared internally with public servants, and a report by a working group would be presented to Cabinet before the end of June.
As part of ongoing efforts to bring about legislative reform, the government is reviewing immigration policies, and this proposal is part of the process. Internal communication within government outlined the proposal, which has come from the political arm. It would include immigration term limits for non-Caymanians working in some statutory authorities and government companies as well as the civil service.
An open consultation has taken place among government employees and other key stakeholders to solicit their views, which will be factored into the analytical process. A number of surveys and discussions with leaders, human resource personnel as well as the wider civil service and affected statutory authorities have also been circulated with all government employees.
Currently, 69% of civil servants are locals. There are around 1,400 non-Caymanians working across central government, most of whom are teachers, police officers and prison staff, as well as health workers and specialists.
Concerns have been raised in the past as well as by members of the current government about the inequities between government expatriate workers and those in the private sector. There have also been allegations that foreign workers employed in the private sector often seek positions in government before they reach their term limit to avoid rollover.
Government workers are also said to have an easier time if they choose to apply for permanent residency, with anecdotal evidence suggesting they are very rarely refused residency or status.
However, while introducing term limits for public staff might offer some opportunities for local people to be trained for the jobs that open up, it could exacerbate the existing challenge of recruiting certain specialists and experts and the worldwide problems of recruiting and retaining healthcare workers and teachers.
This administration, not unlike its predecessors, has made slow progress on immigration reform despite the myriad problems associated with the current policy, which is disliked by workers and employers, locals and expatriates.
In August 2022, Steve McField led a review of the points system for permanent residency, which has, over the last few years, been met with successful legal challenges. However, his work has never been made public. It is understood that the goal was to make getting PR more difficult.
Wesley Howell, the chief officer at the Ministry of Labour who has worked with three ministers since the last election, told the Cayman Compass back in March that work on the recommendations to change the existing point system was nearing completion.
“The legal subcommittee is now working to craft legal direction on the general recommendations,” he said two months ago. “They’ve been going through significant consultation with stakeholders that are part of that recommendation.”
During her budget address at the end of last year, Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said that immigration reform was something her government would address this year. “While we accept that foreign labour will be required to maintain our economy, we also do not accept that everyone who upon arrival should be on automatic pathway to citizenship,” she said.
However, there is no indication that changes will be made anytime soon, and despite the premier’s commitment, it is unlikely that the UPM administration will be able to roll out any meaningful reforms before the official start of the 2025 election campaign in nine months’ time.
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Category: Government Administration, Politics
Hurricane season is around the corner, let us pray for God’s grace and favor 🙏
We will all leave this Earth some day…
There is no reason why the expat government workers should not be on the same term limit as the private sector. I can understand exclusions for certain necessary fields (education, healthcare etc). However, the remaining workers are renewing their contracts every two years. Every time their contract is renewed, why aren’t Caymanians given a chance too fill those post? During contract renewal, they are using job offers from private sector as a renegotiating tool (smart on them), whereas the Caymanian government worker is unable to renegotiate their salary. They are living off the extra perks of being a CIG employee, like free education, which then takes up a spot in the school system where Caymanian kids are then told that the school is full.
You want to set an example for the private sector to follow? Then start at home.
Painting with a broad brush, eh?
We need to rollers most of the teachers especially. Renewal should be performance based. They don’t need to be exempted from this at all.
If CIG school exam results are any guide we don’t just need to roll those teachers we need to replace them.
Blame the teachers but not the bad parenting.
Decades blaming everyone but bad parenting
Holy Mary said it’s all GOODD!
Bunch of RoadRunners n Coyotes
I used to work with CIG. Expats take every available Civil Service Course to better themselves so that when their contract comes for renewal, they are the most qualified. They get time off to prepare for exams and to attend. Or the job description is rewritten to accommodate their accumulated years of experience. It is badly needed so that young Caymanians can get the security of a Government job. There is a lot of support by expat managers to get their countrymen in. With the odd Caymanian in a junior position to make it look like they are hiring locals.
We should get a world-class DG from another country because the current muppet is encouraging this nonsense. He is completely useless.
‘Expats take every available Civil Service Course to better themselves so that when their contract comes for renewal, they are the most qualified’
Yeah, how dare they take whatever course is available to better themselves and a course which is ALSO available to local employees. Meanwhile, some locals love a 2 hour lunch HOUR, make hair, nail and other appointments, disappear before their finish time and then whine about expats. I have seen this behaviour first hand.
Left out running the side gigs
Sometimes Government is used as an easy way to get in and obtain PR without having to pay any fees for that period and get free healthcare and no deductible on pension. Once that’s obtained leave and go to private sector and then maybe return home with all the added benefits of the Cayman Islands
What about the expat attorneys that do local work? How have they not trained locals to do local work after years of being here? They should be rolled over right now. Kenny?
Finally I can get a top tier job. Good lord. They are expat in some roles for like over 15 years. Finally I can get a shot at it.
so you’re telling me government have 1400 expats on the payroll and they don’t have any Caymanians being trained by those expats to be able to take over after 9 years? talk about preparing for the future.
Maybe task the chief officer responsible for succession planning? She has been tasked with that job for 10 years and still no progress.
Be careful- she could be the next DG!
Likely have people who will not take to training and the expat carries the load.
The CIG reports that it employs 4500. Even if expats comprised 20% of those hires, which I would be shocked to hear, it would only amount to 900 jobs. This doesn’t move the needle on anything.
In January there were 1,326 expats in Government Service not counting hundreds more with PR or RERC’s as the spouses of Caymanians (or seemingly many hundreds more who have been granted status in recent years).
100 percent correct
This is long overdue, one of he ways this country can fix the poor education issue is to get rid of the Jamaica teacher cartels in the government schools. As it has been rightfully stated, the private school have no issue attracting teachers from Canada, the US, UK and other countries where education standards are good. CIG schools on the other hand attracts teachers from some of Jamaica’s worst schools that have low standards. It certainly is not the prize teachers from Jamaica’s top schools being ‘herded’ to Cayman. Julianna needs to roll them out of here and implement performance management instead of constantly giving them big raises and extra bonuses at Christmas that they quickly send back to the homeland. Cayman should have an excellent school system given its wealth – instead it has 2 systems – one for the wealthy and one for the rest. FIX EDUCATION and stop putting in place barriers to a good education for ALL.
Juliana needs to go with the Jamaican teacher cartel also.
You are aware that not only Jamaicans will be affected, but others from the EU, US, Canada, etc., etc., will be included?
All will be eligible to apply for PR. Those that deserve it, will get it.
How about we just apply the roll over to certain nationalities? problem solved. WE DO NOT NEED ANY MORE JAMAICANS ON THESE ISLANDS!
Problem created!
true IAH. The Chaldeans must berouted and shipped out.
I hate that I have to agree with your statement because nearly all my teachers were from the Jamaica and they were teh absolute best, I wanted to do well in my classes to make them proud of me. now to be the parent going to these reporting sessions, if I meet 7 of them maybe 2 seem to truly care about the work their doing and it’s sad.
Judging by your grammar, if those Jamaican teachers were supposed to be teaching you English, they should have been sacked and deported.
“Proper grammar” is a dying concept, and language is constantly evolving. If you can’t understand the message they were conveying (perfectly clearly, I might add), then perhaps it is your educators that need reassessment.
It is not a dying concept by any means. The ability to read, write and spell are the tools required to be able to start an entry level position in any field and to have the confidence to move forward and on to better things. Knowledge is power. One is never too old to keep learning.
Old Jamaicans aint the same as the new ones. The 6th August 1962 kicked the entire thing off and look what we have now.
It took less than 40 years if we’re honest as Jamaicans started spreading their “culture” and crime around the world as soon as the Union Jack came down.
Windrush generation, treated horribly and deserved better, excellent people that deserved better than what Jamaican became and how the UK treated them.
Nearly everything that came after that? not so much.
Totally, totally , totally agree!
I know that it is like asking turkeys to vote for Thanksgiving but how about legislation to allow voters to get rid of useless politicians without having to wait for 4 years to elapse?
Voters need to petition the governor for changes to the Elections Law to ban those with criminal records from handling money, developing policy, and playing any role in legal framework. SIPL needs to be a continuously updating filing obligation, in real time, with harsher disqualification penalties for those that fail to submit full and complete reports of conflicts. Criminal indemnities for Cabinet and friends should not be neither desirable nor exist. Eliminating the grandparent rule on Caymanian candidacy, and replacing with another metric like 20 years of continuous legal residency, would be an improvement.
Exactly we have former criminals throughout government, including those whose drug charges were erased in court, or whose tax duty avoidance was erased internally.
All now grinning in “high” positions
What we really need is a 2 terms and out ‘rollover’ for politicians.
They will still get their PENSION AND executive HEALTH FOR LIFE!
Many are now receiving this cash, and draining the treasury.
Go bum them for a 6 pack or cable bill this weekend!!
It’s like locking the gate when the horse already ran off, typical.
too late horse done gone through the gate.in the next world.
Term limits has been a failure in the private sector. Most companies simply send their good non caymanian staff to one of their overseas offices for a year and then bring them back to cayman.
CIG cannot offer the salaries like Maples and the big 4 firms. So they need all of the other benefits as possible.
I have no doubt that if they policy is implemented it will weaken our public service. I am especially worried about police and education. What the policy will do is push many non Caymanians to apply for permanent residence How will that help caymanians?
As a west bay voter I made a huge mistake 3 years ago. I won’t make the same mistake again.
Term Limits are actually very successful when followed and enforced. They are the primary reason our population is not 200,000 already.
This after a recent Compass front page story about recruitment efforts failing in education and healthcare.
This proposal should do wonders for the middle income recruitment efforts for specialists and skilled professionals.
Making expats feel unwelcome may make them leave and take their monetary contributions to the economy with them.
Don’t be a prick. No-one is saying Civil Servants cannot apply for PR.
Are you suggesting the forms they wrote, and the systems they developed, are too hard for them to comply?
please. People come here for the money.
west bay voter please think again will yaa. where are the majority of police officers from today, where are they from. do you think they are all lovey dovey to the caymanian flag and the people of these islands. come out the bush or wherever and see how they mistreat ya people and let go dey own., then rephrase your commentary or just plain shut up.
Only the UPM could come up with a stupid idea like this.
Terms limits have been a failure in the private sector with work permit numbers at an all time high.
Just when we have Good public schools, good doctors at HSA and the police solving crimes we decide to try and drive some of our highly skills expats out.
While this may sound good to voters. Voters better ask themselves what happens to their children when teachers start leaving and crime gets out of control.
Election please come soon.
Good public schools?
Good HSA? HA HA HA.
Police finally solving crimes has only happened when we removed an immigrant CoP and replaced him with a Caymanian.
Downvote it if you want but it won’t make it untrue. 🇰🇾🇰🇾
So that’s why reckless driving has gotten worse. Thanks!
It has been proven time and time again that Jamaican traffic police do not ticket their fellow Jamaicans. Reckless driving, along with trash strewn about the island, has skyrocketed as our population has due to an unprecedented amount of immigrants being granted permits. Perhaps if we stopped accepting foreign licenses, our roads might become safer once again. Certainly something to consider: how does this place seemingly continue worsening when we supposedly only import the “brightest and the best”? 🤔
Election soon come. 🇰🇾🇰🇾
The smooth brains, racists and nationalists too busy with torches and pitchforks to hear this.
yawn…what non-sensical drivel.
the people would benefit most from roll-over would be caymanians…a year abroad might widen/enlighten their outlook on various issues.
go back to whatever issues you left. never seen a set of folks so eager to stay and colonize this little island all over again.
This little island needs to be re-colonized. Currently it’s electorate (citizens) are an epic failure to manage the wealth the CIG holds. So much should be going in the right direction, but the populace is ill-equipped to govern itself.
i’ll decide when i stay or go…i’m caymanian.
always remember…we did not come to take part, we came to take over!
Well educated too, I see.Come affarin now big n bold
Yazeet 😂 man seh “I caymanian now bobodee”
When it comes to labour and immigration law, CIG should be forced to drink their own medicine.
Agree. It’s only fair that what the private sector s forced to do by government should be fond by government (& its agencies) too. How about government staff lose health insurance when they retire, like those in the private sector. You would soon see government finding a solution to the crazy premiums seniors are forced to pay, even after working 40+ years in the private sector. Mine is KYD 750 per month, out of my KYD 1200 pension
Agree. It’s only fair that what the private sector is forced to do by government should be followed by government (& its agencies) too. How about government staff lose health insurance when they retire, like those in the private sector. You would soon see government finding a solution to the crazy premiums seniors are forced to pay, even after working 40+ years in the private sector. Mine is KYD 750 per month, out of my KYD 1200 pension
Term Limits are the only way Cayman can control its permanent population. Without them, given the principles enshrined in our constitution, EVERYONE will get an automatic right to remain here forever if we allow them to “settle” here through pure passage of time.
Whether we like Term Limits or not is irrelevant. They are an existential necessity for this country and its people.
The population can be controlled by actually enforcing who is allowed in and who permits are given to! Rather than worrying about who can stay – worry about who can come!
If the correct people were coming on island, it wouldn’t matter if they were to stay
We can do both.
Multi-task? LOL
“Officials have confirmed that Deputy Governor Franz Manderson has been asked to assess the potential implications if such a policy were implemented”….is Franz a KC, or chief justice now? If there is anyone that needs to go, it’s Franz.
1:16 delusional !
Lets hope that the turkeys who won’t vote for Christmas are outvoted.
if i cutting my salary to build roads…i want piece of land that it built on!? lol
Yeah right ! Easy solution they make them Caymanian ! Don’t be fooled Cayman ! SRIU playing mind games !
Vote buying scheme at best. Never going to happen before the election, they just want the Civil Service voting block to think it is.
The Civil Service voting block values diversity and inclusion and recognises that with a small population we don’t have all the people and skill sets we need to maintain a sucesful economy. So when we can’t get teachers, doctors, police, marine scientists, lawyers who is going to suffer! Sort out the PR system for everyone; provide better education to Caymanians and stop focusing on breaking the bits that work. The private sector is still suffering from the pension reforms which resulted in an economic loss to the islands and drain of talent.
what in the flight did you think we were doing before? i dont know where goofs come out from with this stuff. We certainly wouldnt be overpopulated and bursting at the seams. I guess Cayman was always here just without Caymanians and everyone lived in holes. Get serious bro, we’re bringing foreign people here to accommodate the foreigners already here.
No – You are bringing foreigners here to change your diapers as you cannot manage the basic’s of governance. Without them you are carrying smudge pots and sending all the males offshore to work; ahh, the ‘good old days’ you pine fore!
What happened with the pension reforms, please?
They were before my time, and I am presently paying maximum contributions – is this unwise?
If the civil service has to face Term Limits, it can get teachers from the same places as Cayman Prep, St. Ignatius, and CIS.
Doctors can come from the same places Health City and Doctor’s Hospital can find them.
The cops can come from the UK, just like they used to (when the Police were respected).
Marine scientists can come from CCMI, Woods Hole, or any number of exceptional universities around the world.
Lawyers can come from the same places Maples manages to find them.
Of course, all of the above is if they cannot be found locally – and there are many exemplars of home-grown persons in all of these fields who outshine many “imported” civil servants.
“there are many exemplars of home-grown persons in all of these fields who outshine many “imported” civil servants.”
Wow, what planet are you from? Stunningly incorrect statement.
11:45. Correct these politicians have no clue what they are doing. I for one will not be fooled again. This decision is a threat to education and our security.
Fellow voters remember the rich in the private sector can send their children to high school overseas if they don’t like the standard of education in private schools. The majority of caymanians have to rely on public school teachers, who will no doubt leave in droves. I am hopeful the Premier will kill this nonsense.
Exactly. The result of this proposal has been the leveling up of a division in society and the us versus them issues that are in no way beneficial to anyone.
The relatively low percentage of expats in government have become scapegoats for the Jamaicans deemed harmful to society.
About time.
This is a long overdue and necessary change. There is no legitimate basis for the wholesale exemption of all civil servants from almost the entirety of our immigration protections and controls.
The automatic exemption of all expatriate civil servants from Term Limits (and let’s face it, they appear to have pretty much exempted themselves) has deprived countless Caymanians of opportunity, has allowed hundreds of foreign children of expatriate civil servants to acquire the right to live in Cayman permanently without them (or their parents) even having to apply for PR, and has exposed the Caymanian people to millions in liability for the FREE education, insurance and non-contributory pensions of a great many people who have neither the need, nor incentive, to train their Caymanian replacements.
We have outsourced whole aspects of the running of our country to persons from around the region, and allowed particular demographics and cultures to dominate whole departments potentially to the exclusion of Caymanians. It has also overwhelmed agencies of government including education and aspects of healthcare, given that there seems to be no limit on the numbers of dependents expatriate civil servants can have.
We have allowed the tail to wag the dog for too long.
If government makes this change they should be warmly congratulated.
Agree, except where health care is concerned. I think there should be a special provision for health care workers, because the continuity they establish with the system and their patients is often the very thing that makes the difference in actual lives. We have people from all around the globe who come here and become part of our health care network, and it IS a network, and it WORKS.
HSA is amazing; they may be occasionally short on supplies, or equipment not functioning, or budget, but the staff SHINE. Continually, all day, every day, working very long hours because of who they are, and the needs of their patients. That’s a special kind of person, and I believe that type of person is far more important than where they come from or their Immigration status.
No, you want to apply the rules, apply them evenly. You can’t want rid of foreigners and still appreciate their labour.
Pick a lane.
And yet everyone from Health City to Doctor’s Hospital, Integra and 40+ private clinics can all function perfectly well with rollover in place. Nurses can apply for PR, you know.
I agree but Healthcare is probably better placed than the rest of the public sector. Many public servants are the only technical or subject matter expert on island so forcing them into PR or exit is not the answer. If the civil service haven’t managed to train someone in 8 years there must be a reason! Look at that issue and not spook the experts we have which then only forces us to recruit at a higher cost from a decreasing pool. Despite what many people believe, Cayman is not attractive anymore in the international market- high cost of living, limited schooling, limited housing, etc…. Stop blaming the people you asked to come and make a difference- they answered your call. Maybe look at the decision makers who have been tasked with implementing succession planning since 2001.
Really..I WhatsApp my prescription to refill at the pharmacy (their new service) and 2 weeks later and several trips to get it, still not ready!!
The ones that should have been rolled over already have status.
The ones that gave it to themselves?
It would be interesting to know where the 69% of locals in the Civil Service are in fact from, and if they became Caymanian, what vetting they in fact underwent. Certainly, in some departments, it appears that even the Caymanians are Jamaican. The whole issue is an affront to the basis of our society and the position of Caymanians within it.
2:29, sorry, but nearly 100% of the 69% Caymanians are “real” Caymanians. Only a few are recent status gainers. But what we have now in Cayman is a huge number of these “real” Caymanians who are the product of relationships ( or at least the mating!) that have occurred between “real” Caymanians and expatriates ( especially Jamaicans) over the last 40 years. And this will continue. How many real/born/ indigenous Caymanians are having children with other real/born/indigenous Caymanians? Not many!
I call Bullshit.
Education, law enforcement, legal services, the judiciary and the prison service are dominated by persons not originally from here.
If they were filling a void, and hand-picked from the best around the world, whilst diligently engaged in training their Caymanian successors, then I would not take issue.
But many of them are not hand-picked from the best around the world, are they? There are superstars amongst them, but too often they are classmates from the same small group of failing states. And I certainly see no overt private sector level efforts to identify and train replacements from the local community.
Confront those issues!
I don’t think it’s a “problem” for Caymanians to procreate. The hateful competition about who is more Caymanian than another Caymanian is disgusting. I was born here, raised here, I’m Caymanian. But because my grandparents weren’t from here, I’m not deemed to be “real” Caymanian. smh.
You understand the difference between a Canadian and an Eskimo though?
Unna nyam turkle with breadkind? Ever?
Maybe we could start by rolling over all the expatriate (let’s face it we mean Jamaican) CIG staff who are currently ‘working from home pending an investigation’ –
Primary school teacher kicking pupils
CIFEC teacher being inappropriate with girls
Police officers threatening witnesses
Actually maybe the whole police force as they might as well be off work given the little they do…
I’m sure people have plenty more examples they could add to the list!
Yes, 10:55, I have one example….the CAYMANIAN senior teacher who carried out exorcisms and has bizarre religious beliefs that was returned to school after a period of suspension. It would be better if she was working from home, far away from our kids but of course she’s one of ours and our Minister of Education is a religious zealot so bingo she’s back amongst the kids.
It would be better if she were fired you mean
You never heard of Zoom exorcisms?
Yes well, both the teacher and Minister should go as well.
Two, sorry three, wrongs don’t make a right.