Boards to blame over advert infractions
Cayman Islands Department of Immigration, George Town
(CNS): Premier Alden McLaughlin has pointed the finger at the immigration boards as the ones who should be asking the questions of employers who run recruitment advertisements that disenfranchise locals as they aim to recruit or retain specific work-permit holders. When George Town MLA and backbench C4C member Winston Connolly asked about the enforcement and legality of some recruitment adverts seeking staff with decades of experience and a long list of qualifications to answer the phone, the premier said the issue was not a matter of law but the discretion of the board.
Speaking in Finance Committee Monday as legislators scrutinized McLaughlin’s ministries and their 2015/16 budgets, the premier said he did not believe that what people said in recruitment ads was unlawful or could be policed but that it was the responsibility of the boards to query employers over attempts to prevent locals applying for posts that are clearly earmarked for permit holders.
In circumstances where job advertisements are obviously tailored the board should be looking closely, the premier stated, and then deal with the application for the work permit it relates too accordingly.
However, Connolly pointed out that employers were using this kind of tactic frequently and they were still being given permits, and he asked the premier if anyone was “being put over coals for disenfranchising locals”.
McLaughlin told the C4C member of his government that he could not say what the boards do or don’t do. “We have all seen many instances,” the premier said, where adverts were intended to disenfranchise locals and that he and other members of the parliament had brought that to the attention of the relevant boards.
“I don’t think we could do much more than that,” he added.
Discussing issues of enforcement and voting almost $1.8 million to the immigration department to enforce the laws, Connolly questioned what was being done about what he believed were significant numbers of foreign nationals in Cayman either without work permits or holding permits without really having a job. The George Town MLA pointed to people selling numbers in barber shops in the capital that were permit holders in the shops but were not cutting hair.
He questioned whether or not it was time for an amnesty and then a major clamp down. However, the premier said he did not believe that this was a significant problem. Nevertheless, his chief officer encouraged the members of the Legislative Assembly and the wider public to contact immigration when they see what they believe could be an infraction of the immigration laws.
A number of infractions were raised during the discussion. The independent member for North Side highlighted what he said was an illegal dive operation in North Side that he had been reporting to immigration for more than five years but nothing had been done.
Captain Eugene Ebanks, the UDP’s backbench member for West Bay, also raised an issue that was impacting his constituents as he asked about an ongoing investigation over a foreign charter boat that is in Cayman running tours and selling fish without any of the necessary paperwork, permits or licences.
Acting Chief Immigration Officer Bruce Smith told the LA that the probe into the activities regarding the boat, which appears to have been here for some six months, was ongoing but as yet they did not have the evidence to arrest anyone. The committee also heard that the customs department had extended the boat’s right to stay, an issue that baffled everyone, including Finance Committee chair Marco Archer, the minister with responsibility for customs.
Category: Crime, Government Finance, Immigration, Jobs, Local News, Politics
This s so sad for our people yet immigration has the power to stop this.
Alden has made it clear that regardless of qualified Caymanian applicants he has no problem granting permits as they create lower end jobs….grab your shovels educated Caymanians. And the boards only care about a position if a relative or friend of theirs wants the position.
If the PPM or Immigration is at all interested in blatant violations and abuses of work permit ads just look at the patently offensive ads placed by a major liquor distributor for a so called ‘retail supervisor’ position. Aka a manager that they don’t want to pay the managers work permit fee for. (another issue and major wrong).
Absolutely no quantifiable qualifications, such as degrees. Why, because the expat they want to hire is uneducated, and has no relevant qualifications. They are just friends with players. I am sure Immigration will never challenge this permit as it is an ‘untouchable’ company.
There is such a lack of balls, character and common sense on this Island that I fear nothing will ever be done. Money talks, and our politicians are do not seem to have any initIave to be more then buck passers. Oh, it isn’t us…it is those people over at immigration. It is there fault, our hands are clean.
We all need to stand up. Do the right thing! Evil thrives when good people do nothing. A lack of action is tantamount to participation. In the words of the great statesman Harry S Truman ‘the buck stops here’.
Well done Winston! Thank you again!
Totally agree….we need more of these bright young Caymanians in government who haven’t been tainted by years of cronyism.
Let me say my piece there is no immigration law being enforce only time they play a role is when its against there own people , there are people who cant speak English coming to our shores with no English language am certain of this why because the men who oversea over these test letting them threw the loophole . Number selling is apriority for Dominicans and Jamaicans in this island. They are given permits on this Island to sell numbers eastern Ave is infested with sellers, No Caymanian would never be caught doing this in another country what immigration doing about this nothing sad Numerous of Jamaicans control Cayman number industry the government allow these people to send money with no limitation seven times a day to there country money establishments has increase Numbers and corruption. as I said Caymanians will soon see darkness and when that happen me as a Caymanian will only try to help those around me am not looking morality its just reality . you go in the bank there in charge, in the courts there over in charge. in the prison they owns that. only Caymanians going to prison does this mean we are the only ones committing these crimes it goes on and on Caymanians wake up take back your Island they will throw you out we are already a minority in these islands sad am living amounts them but they will not take what I govern its selfish and only make believe they want to be good citizens remember they undermine the people in this island we need to stick together to make this work but no we are killing our own people.
@4:42 – But English is obviously not your first language so why are you so upset about the “people who cant speak English coming to our shores with no English language”?
For English, press 1.
In a normal place, Government delegates its decisions to civil servants to implement. To me the question is, why did they not question the boards earlier, or possibly they realize where their income comes from. However that is no excuse for biased adverts.
Blame who ?? YOU are the government, so DO something about it ! !
Let’s not get carried away here guys.
This practice is a symptom not the underlying issue. This is the effect not the cause. We need to fix the real issue not the symptom. Why is an employer practicing these illegal hiring practices?
Govt should ensure that top notch education is provided to its people. Policies should ensure that people are held accountable. (Ie don’t pass every student to the next grade regardless of performance). Ensure the unemployed are truly unemployed rather than welfare recipients.
No employer would bend the ads or choose to pay for a work permit instead of hiring a Caymanian if the available labor pool was skilled, educated, motivated, ready to take employment and succeed.
Focus on our getting our people ready to compete in the job market and these practices will no longer occur.
We have failed our people for far too long. We have massive hotels opening in 2 years which will require a variety of positions from hotel manager to dish washer. How many people will dart need for each position? What will be the employee requirements for each position?
Why are we not examining the unemployed pool and start the mandatory training so that when these positions are available our people will be ready?
Apply this thought process to the health city and other developments and unemployment will be reduced to nothing in 2 years.
Or we can continue our practices of waiting for the ads and then bitching about them and trying to figure out who’s fault it is – the govt, the employer, ppm, upd, the British, the boards, the expats etc.
Come on let’s get the issue solved and stop band aiding the symptom.
You miss the fact that you do not have to pay obvertime or pension or health insurance for expats, because no-one makes you. Because of this there are many reasons why unscrupulous employers prefer expats over Caymananians that have nothing to do with skills or abilities or dedication to hard work.
Very well said. Stop the bitching, start training and get motivated. No more sick days, get to work on time, less time on the smart phone, give the customer the service they expect, realise that employment comes with responsibilities and do what it takes to be successful.
Moan about expat labour all you like, but until you match them employers will always choose them above you.
The board are useless, they have no backbone………they have certain discretion but nobody wants to be the first to set an example and there are always some board members who have a vested interest. Be it immigration boards, planning board, liquor licensing board, you name it.
The question that should be answered is why employers feel the need to place such adverts in the first place. It is not simply to get under the skin of local labour, it is far more complex and worrying than that. There appears to be a huge disconnect between local perception and fact, it simply can’t be true that Caymanians are being discriminated against just because they are Caymanian.
Ask the question, what is it about being a Caymanian that employers don’t like or want in their employ. Why would they rather pay for work permits, over inflated pensions and medical insurances just to employ someone from the other side of the world. What is it that they are looking for in an employee?
Once again we see that it is the Caymanian leaders who are the corrupt ones here. They are solely responsible for the huge numbers of work permits on these islands, it is they who fake adverts, hold work permits for unknown individuals and deceive their own people. Perhaps a good place to start would be with the names of employers (holders of WP’s), the numbers of staff they apparently employ and where they are working.
It isn’t the high end, white collar job market that’s the problem in terms of sheer numbers, it’s the lower end and service industries that generate the figures. Jobs that Caymanians have historically shied away from.
There is little point moaning about block layers and cheap permits if Caymanians refuse to train and qualify in the construction industry, because then the question becomes ‘why are you employing expat labour in the first place?’
The same applies to plumbers, gardeners, nurses, and yes, police officers, (if the recent RCIPS recruitment drive was anything to go by).
It is obvious that Caymanians want to earn a respectable wage, and justifiably so. But, with that comes higher cost margins for employers and inevitably a higher cost of living effectively cancelling out the gains of higher wages. With such a small, employable population and no export industry must come the realisation that to generate enough GBP to pay for basic services you have no choice but to rely on a significant expat population.
However, many Caymanians refuse to train in industries and services that they see as beneath their birthright, as if being a Caymanian gives them an entitlement to do jobs that they are neither qualified or educated to do.
And finally, until the government brings on a compulsory register of those who are without any form of employment, then we will never truly know the extent of real unemployment. Just merely wanting to change job is not a justifiable reason to claim that there is an employment crisis.
Until Cayman confronts the elephant in the room, nothing will change.
Agreed. Why doesn’t Cayman start an apprenticeship scheme where young Caymanians get college based tuition and workplace experience combined? Then raise the bar in terms of health and safety and good site practice, pay an appropriate wage and boom, you’ve got your own construction industry workforce that’s not reliant on foreign labour.
Such a gold standard would push cowboys out of the market and raise the respectability of hardworking tradesmen and women amongst the local population.
The same model can be used for all trades and ensure that no child leaves school without the opportunity to enter the workplace.
And definitely register all unemployed on an official database. No more pie in the sky figures dreamed up by grandstanding politicians.
That is exactly what happens at CIFEC.
As a “younger” Caymanian I am DISGUSTED at the lack of respect Caymanians have for one another. Thank you to Capt. Eugene for ONCE AGAIN bringing this to the attention of the “powers that be” regarding this foreign boat which obviously has been given permission to be here BY one or more of our Government bodies! The Caymanian “authorities” were put on alert from DECEMBER 2014! Why was this allowed to continue for 6 months???
There was sufficient evidence provided to Acting Chief Immigration Officer Mr. Bruce Smith who did WHAT with it? Let them get away with SEVERAL charges that could have been brought against them, but instead… took money out of the mouths of hard working boat Captain’s who actually abide by the laws and have a trade & business license and all the other requisites that are necessary to carry out trade and business here in the Cayman Islands. Unlike the foreigners who are allowed to come here and do what they please, book charters for revenue in excess of over US$4,000 per DAY plus have the balls to sell the fish to local restaurants!! The boat’s website clearly boasted 50+ days fully booked in the Cayman Islands…Facebook pages, boasting the beautiful catches out at 60 mile and Pickle banks! So if that wasn’t evidenced enough Mr. Smith, how about the possibility of creating an under cover operation utilizing your very own enforcement department and possibly BOOK a fake charter on their website, and actually go and be a client of theirs for a day? The Captain even had his own personal website with calendar dates showing availability in Cayman and providing contact details. Where was the enforcements departments intelligence search in this? OH key word “intelligence” NEVER MIND!!! OH wow is common sense not so common?
In your position, you Mr. Smith should be ashamed of yourself. This was not new news to you but you sat back and allowed this thievery to happen to YOUR FELLOW CAYMANIANS! STAND DOWN Mr. Smith!!! You are a traitor and do no justice to our islands especially to our maritime industry. Caymanians can NOT go into the USA or any other country for that matter and do what has just been done to us without abiding by their laws, why do we allow it???
Well said.
60 mile bank by definition isn’t Cayman waters.
It is International waters.so they are allowed to patrol those waters.I bet if you were on the Banks and wanting assistance,you would be glad to see them.
They cannot enforce Cayman law though.
Hmm, is their website registered in Cayman (.ky) or is it an international address? Are they operating inside Cayman territorial waters, (within 12 miles) or in international waters? Do they operate a land based business in Cayman, (shop front, office etc….).
If a chartered aircraft lands on Cayman, pays his landing fees etc…is he entitled to pick up passengers and take them to another country without having a Cayman business licence?
Do the Honduran fishing boats moored in Governors Harbour and Harbour House canal operate with Cayman business licences? These are simple questions in need or simple answers.
And, as a regular visitor to the sandbar, are all the pleasure boat ‘captains’ as honest, as diligent and as environmentally friendly as they like to portray. Do they still raise marine animals out of the ocean, do they go to starfish point and allow tourists to remove starfish for photos? How about when they tell private boat owners that they have the unassailable right to push their boats into the shallow water, despite there being no law or privilege allowing them to do so?
I don’t think you’ll find too many people who share the local waters with commercial leisure boats having too much sympathy for their plight. And in any case, we’re only talking about one boat after all.
An one final question, what about all the Caymanians who hold fraudulent work permits for those they do not directly employ and in most cases have never met?
Dear anonymous 4:20,
You obviously have no clue of the laws and procedures for doing business in the Cayman Islands nor do you seem to posses the knowledge of the Customs Law in regards to visiting vessels. Let me explain to you, in simple terms, so you can understand the problem here.
1. To conduct any sort of business (earn money) in Cayman you have to possess a Trade and Business License.
2. To possess a Trade and Business License you must be Caymanian or the company must be majority Caymanian ownership.
3. Visiting vessels (not owned by Caymanians or do not resident in the Cayman Islands) are only allowed to stay in Cayman for 30 days without the import duty of 12% being paid to government. If they intend to stay for over 30 days they must apply for an extension thru the Collector of Customs to the Minister of Finance.
4. Visiting vessels are not allowed to conduct any business (conduct any transaction or action in which they receive any sort of payment.
5. The vessel in question presented itself to Customs and Immigration as a visiting vessel here only for recreational purposes.
6. 95% of the charter boat business in Cayman is derived from visiting tourist. Very little charters are booked by persons who live in Cayman.
7. Where their website was registered and where they fished has absolutely no bearing on this issue. The vessel in question fished most days around the island but did have a few offshore trips, so what?; The issue is that the were paid to take persons visiting Cayman fishing and WAS NOT PERMITTED TO DO SO UNDER THE LAW. The fact that they were booking charters, and collecting money for taking persons fishing is the BIG problem; they also sold their catch to restaurants generating even more revenue. In order to do that there has to be a Cayman connection somewhere; T&B License, Caymanian ownership etc.
8. Yes! The commercial fishing boats at Harbour House do in fact have a T&B license and abide by all laws and regulations.
The fact that this was allow to continue is absolutely disgraceful. There were many Caymanian boat Captains that were not able to sell THEIR catch because the market was flooded by the fish caught/sold by the visiting boat. Several Caymanian charter boats lost the opportunuty of being chartered and selling their catch because of this vessel here, doing charters with absolutely no permission.
The Immigration Department and the Customs Department was made aware of this situation on many occasions yet they did nothing about it. No one even attempted to contact any of the phone numbers and email addresses and ask for information on booking a charter in Cayman. There were several email address and phone numbers for “information on booking charters” that were given to Immigration but instead of calling or emailing what did they do? they went down to the boat and asked the captain “unna doing charters? cause somebody said unna doing charters and thats illegal” Of course they would deny they are operating a charter business; who in their right mine would admit they were committing an offence. The very next day all of their websites, facebook pages and other blogs about their operation were taken down, but they still continued to run their charters every day.
Every Caymanian in the charter boat business must comply with so many rules and regulations and must be inspected anually before they can operate. Before they can begin operations the spend large amounts of money just complying with the laws yet this boat can just come in here and do as they want.
If issues like these are not sorted out it will not be long before Caymanians take matters into their own hands. Hardworking Caymanians are struggling and the government just sits back and let BS like this happen? Bloodshed is going to be the only way to stop this looks like.
4:20 please read your post when the time comes that someone begins to operate in the same field of employment as you do, but they DO NOT pay Trade and Business license fees, insurance, pension, office rent, CUC and whatever other expenses you incur to operate, but they are making the same amount of money or maybe even more than you do…let us know how that feels!!
Or….maybe you are so rich you don’t need to work and do not know or just do not care about what it is like to be one of us.
Calm down bobo, they are just questions. And like you, I’m disappointed in Caymanians everyday.
Oh boohoo, if your boats and ‘captains’ operated under proper marine and safety laws you would be closed down for the total disregard of those in your care. Overloading, unsafe vessels, lack of safety equipment, inexperienced crews, excessive alcohol served, the list goes on.
Your only concern is how many cruise shippers you can cram on your boats and how much cash you can walk away with. Try showing some respect for other boaters and for those who live along the canals you race down to feed your hunger for the mighty dollar.
Sounds like this boat is very successful, got his number, the local boats I’ve used before are crap? It is interesting though that an island without a home commercial fishing fleet can have their market ‘flooded’ by a single boat, regardless of how many times he goes out. Also, if the Honduran commercial boats have T&B licences, who is the Caymanian owner and why is he running foreign flagged and crewed boats out of Cayman? Kinda defeats the whole immigration argument really.
And BTW, you should be arrested for incitement to commit violence, you are obviously a very unstable person who should be kept away from the paying public.
That’s what we’ve come to know and respect from our esteemed boat captains, a propensity to turn to violence and intimidation when things don’t go their way. Like it or not bobo, you can’t have one law for you and one for them. But perhaps you don’t get the irony of your position, you know, somebody breaks the law so you break it to stop them, doh!!
You sound like a thoroughly nasty fellow who shouldn’t be around members of the public at the best of times. It’s easy to make threats of violence when hiding behind anonymity, most cowards do.
Anyway, just a couple of points.
If the Honduran commercial boats have T&B licences, who is the Caymanian owner or partner running foreign flagged and crewed boats out of Cayman? Surely that defeats your entire argument and puts a huge hole in the Caymanian jobs for Caymanians mind set. But wait, that’s the point isn’t it, Caymanians don’t really care, they just want the money off the backs of cheap labour. How many of your boat crews are Caymanian and how much do you pay them in basic wages?
And, on an island without a home commercial fishing fleet, how can one boat, (regardless of its legality) ‘flood’ the local market considering the the size of the catering and service industry here. I suggest that your nemesis has found a buyer that you failed to satisfy, and guess what, you’re jealous and we smell BS.
Finally, can you pass on this guys details as he sounds like a very successful fishing captain, unlike some of the bozo’s that claim to be local and fail to deliver.
Or won’t you do that because you are unsure of your position, happy to make threats, but not publish an apparent illegal business practice in fear of retaliation.
Your diatribe is reasonably well written, (or cut and pasted) it’s just a shame that your cowardice stops you from backing it up.
This practice has been going on since they made it law to advertise for employment positions, which means it been abused as a process for 20+yrs just like just about everything else in Cayman.
Problem is when the powers that be continually ignore law and policy, everyone else does and it becomes the norm.
Then you try to enforce it all of a sudden and what happens?
F all.
Clearly Immigration have failed here not only Mr. Smith but Mr Gary Wong too. I am tired of calling him and giving him credible information and he does not act. My confidence is lost with this Government entity. Sad day for our people!
Employers want an employee with as much qualification as they already have. It’s like a law of nature. Cayman’s laws are unrealistic and unenfoirceable.
Mr. Premier
It is an offence under the Immigration Law to mislead the authorities in the execution of their responsibilities. Tailoring an add setting unnecessary requirements is misleading the authorities. It is an offence but that does not matter, because the authorities never seem to do anything! Even worst case scenario all that happens is that some poor third world desperate person gets their permit denied because their employer falsely alleged that 17 years experience was required to wash dishes. Their life career is ended (even though they personally did nothing wrong), and the business that tried to mislead then advertises correctly and gets another permit anyway.
You acknowledge that there are many instances where adverts have been intentionally designed to disenfranchise locals and you do not know what happened? It is long past a national disgrace and is one of the fundamental reasons why we have an unhealthy and unnecessary expat/Caymanian divide in increasing sectors.
You are disconnected if you really believe there are not very significant numbers of persons here operating businesses without licenses or operating without permits, but then again, perhaps no-one ever knocks on your door asking to wash your car. Look up and down 7 mile beach and consider how many businesses are getting operated out of condos without permits or licenses. Look at any construction site and ask yourself how come so many persons with cheap laborer work permits are laying blocks (requiring a more expensive Mason’s permit).
Millions of revenue is lost by persons either defrauding government as to what their position and role really is, or sitting in their home office, working away and without any fear of detection. Honest businesses still get out-competed by those that operate on a lower cost base permitted only by non-compliance.
Reporting is a joke with no effective action. If Capt. Eugene in West Bay cannot get action, what are the rest of us supposed to do?
Cha!
Sadly it you don’t even have to get up from your computer to find infractions. Just log on to one of the advert sites under employment you can find many ads for domestic helpers that are already on island either looking for work or by ppl looking for workers that require the person already be on island. How many actually go through and get a job with a WP share. Not many I’d wager. But if immigration wanted to do something the could police this easily.
Please – the average person sees these things why can’t the people paid to do so? Enuf is Enuf!!
Now Mr McLaughlin expects to put policing this into the hands of the public. Well then I guess we have more evidence of where to gov’t can save money because the people whose job it is to do so no longer need that job – when they can get it done for free by the poor people struggling to make ends meet! Get real!
Fellow countrymen if you want a job as domestic helpers then apply. Fellow country men if you do not want to see imported domestic workers then stop hiring them. It really is very simple.
What a surprise he didn’t blame Big Mac for this also!
I blame Big Mac for this.
Every time Alden speaks he confirms how disconnected from reality he is as a leader
Just curious about the Premier’s comments as reported in this article. Boards of Government Departments/SAGC’s are discouraged from becoming involved in administrative matters. The enforcement of Immigration Department requirements, relating to employment or otherwise, appear to be the responsibility of the administration of the Immigration Department, not the Board.
Is my interpretation incorrect? Is the Premier mistaken or is he proposing Board interference in such matters, contrary to good governance requirements?? Hopefully not the latter because he is amongst those who criticized the last Premier for allegedly doing the same thing. However, so far Mr. McLaughlin has seemingly turned a blind eye to exactly that kind of interference from other Boards under his regime, so no surprise if he’s double-speaking.
The Immigration Board decides applications. That is different than the boards you are thinking of.
I think what he is saying is that the people on boards or Immigration Department who look at these applications and advertisements should be questioning these. The board chair would refer the matter I guess to enforcement for further investigation the board would not conduct an investigation.
either way you spin it alden…it is more incompetence and mismangement from your administration….
True but at least its not gambling, shady deals and the rest.
Typical ppm passing the blame while doing nothing to help caymanians. Yet they as the government are responsible for all political appointments to the Immigration boards.
The irony of it all is lost on the Premier and his band of merrymakers. Gawd help Cayman
In my life I have never heard of a custom officer been able to extend ones stay in a country or Island. I know that you said the “boats rights to stay” Mr Smith I would tell that in laws boats do not have any rights , the owner and the captain do.
Its true but Gawd help Cayman is right because the McKeeva and his bunch are no better. We seem to have only two choices in Cayman, incompetence or dishonesty.