CINP to introduce additional fee for foreign labour
Dan Scott (CBE candidate) is the leader of the Cayman Islands National Party. He was EY regional manager until his retirement in June 2023. More at the CINP West Bay rally(CNS): The Cayman Islands National Party has said that, if elected, it will introduce a Foreign Worker “Opportunity Fee” in addition to the regular work permit fees to discourage employers from hiring large numbers of low-paid expatriates and instead take on local people. The party’s manifesto, launched on Monday, outlines a tiered foreign worker levy to prevent over-reliance on low-cost foreign labour while, it claims, managing costs without causing inflation.
The manifesto also indicates the CINP would not implement an across-the-board minimum wage but would introduce sector-related rules around pay.
In a message about the manifesto, CINP Leader Dan ScottDan Scott (CBE candidate) is the leader of the Cayman Islands National Party. He was EY regional manager until his retirement in June 2023. More spoke about “reforming” a re-imagined immigration system and promoting work for local people, and said the party would reduce population growth. “We will reform immigration to protect Caymanians’ opportunities and end the reckless population growth that threatens our way of life,” he said.
The document outlines an additional fee over and above the permit fees that will be higher for low-skilled workers. Employers would have to pay an annual Opportunity Fee per foreign worker in addition to customary work permit fees as part of the CINP’s set of policies to tackle the problems around the immigration system and create more opportunities for local workers.
The manifesto said that higher Opportunity Fees on low-skilled foreign workers and skilled professionals in jobs and sectors in which Caymanians want to work would help open doors for local job seekers. The money collected from this fee would be invested in local workforce training and stipends for Caymanians in apprenticeships so they have livable wages while training.
The PPM has said it would introduce a CI$9 minimum wage and TCCP has said it would roll out the recommendations of the committee and increase the current minimum wage to CI$8.75 before assessing further increases. However, the CINP has said it would instead opt for a sector-related pay structure based on an Opportunity Wage Framework (OWF).
“Instead of increasing the one-size-fits-all minimum wage, the country would implement an OWF,” the manifesto states, with sector-based wage floors that increase with skill levels and productivity.
It’s not clear how pay will be mandated or regulated, but the party said it is targeting low-skilled and
skilled industries, sectors and jobs that have a high percentage of low-wage foreign labour, ensuring
wage increases align with economic growth. The regime would require businesses to provide upskilling
opportunities for Caymanian workers, linking wages to worker qualifications and industry standards.
Speaking about the new manifesto, Scott said it was a people’s blueprint for Cayman’s future.
“This manifesto is not about empty promises. It is a call to action, a commitment to the Caymanian people that we will put them back at the centre of national decision-making,” Scott said. “Caymanians are not asking for miracles. They are asking for fairness, opportunity, and leadership that puts country before self. That’s exactly what this blueprint delivers.”
He said the timing of the manifesto, just two weeks before the general election, was deliberate as the CINP has been seeking input from the wider community, including civil servants, other experts and ordinary Caymanians. “We chose not to rush but to do it right. Fixing what is broken requires serious work, informed decisions, and real solutions, not political theatre,” Scott added.
Watch Scott’s full video message here.
Read the CINP Manifesto below or on the CINP website here.
Check out the CNS Election Section interactive map to see who is running in each constituency.
See the list of candidates and their party affiliations here.
Category: Election News
I will give credit to Dan for all the jobs he created on Cayman Brac since he left here decades ago. Here is the list that I know of
1. One retired lady accompanies his wife around campaigning.
2. One guy from Watering Place does some painting for him.
3. One former police helps put up campaign signs.
4. One retired civil servants assist with campaign signs.
So I give credit where it is due, as it does appear that Dan he at least 4 persons hired in some sort of capacity on Cayman Brac.
In other News, we have a certain Jamaican that goes by the name of “Crackaz_ent” on Tik Tok, spreading true hatred for Caymanians on social media. A real ignorant case if you ask me. Attacking a young professional Caymanian woman for voicing her frustrations about Caymanians being priced out of their own country, while foreigners are able to take their wages home, where it goes a lot further. No hatred from the Caymanian she was just pointing out a sad fact. This truly dim man took it as an insult and took to social media to belittle and attack this woman. I hope the authorities are watching and ensure this individual is never able to set foot on this Island again. No space for these radical views against Caymanians.
He should get together with Chris Saunders, same dog puppy .
Dangerous Dan
Think Skin Dan
Dan and The Pretenders
Doesn’t know Constituents in his district Dan
XXXX
Dont blame the low wage foreigners/driftwood like me who come to your country to earn a living.
Caymanians simply are not going to work in low wage jobs in the hospitality, retail or construction industries. Go to any restaurant or store – what do you see – people like me.
Go to any hotel/condo/house being built – what do you see – people like me.
The only reason people like me are here are because CAYMANIANS AND CAYMANIAN COMPANIES are hiring me.
An additional fee on low wage foreign workers is a joke Dan Scott – you live in a lala land in your mind.
As your wife and your paid assistant drive around Cayman Brac East just how many local caregivers do they encounter? How many local gardeners do they encounter? How many local construction workers do they encounter? What percentage of able bodied locals in your district choose not to work and instead collect funds from social services/NAU/DFA or whatever they call it? How many people working on the road crew in your district do you actually know?
Dan Scott, I truly hope your idiotic idea does not become a reality – all you will do is drive up the costs of everything and the same locals who don’t work now – well they still will not be working.
While Cayman can survive without foreigners/driftwood like me, I really wonder just how many want to go back to yesteryear – when seafaring men sent money back home, where Caymanians worked in foreign countries.
Us low wage foreign workers are not the problem – think about it Dan Scott.
The ability of unscrupulous employers to bring in unlimited numbers of low paid foreign workers, at derisory wages, driving down the value of Caymanian’s own labour – is exactly the problem.
20 years ago the jobs you describe were likely filled by Caymanians (long after they came back from the sea). Those Caymanians have been displaced from participation in their own society. You need to check your sense of entitlement in another person’s land.
As you said 20 years (more like 30 if we are to argue) Caymanians did work in these jobs. The same companies and employers who hired them (many with very recognizable Caymanian surnames) well they are the ones who started hiring the foreigners/driftwood like me.
When the Caymanian Protection Board ceased to exist that is when people like me starting coming by the droves.
Sense of entitlement? I know that I am a piece of driftwood —- and yet Cayman companies and Cayman people still seem to hire me – go figure.
Now who exactly granted a bulk of Caymanian Status to people some 20 years ago – ah yes -the local politicians who were elected by local people.
Who are the vast majority of employees in Immigration, in WORC, in Labour, in the Government Ministries associated with these departments???? Who are the vast majority of members on all the various boards associated with work permits, etc-
You see 4:03PM writer – it is not the unscrupulous employers that are the problem. The problem is the Cayman Politicians, Cayman Civil Servants and Cayman Board Members who year after year keep allowing more and more and more driftwood like me to be here.
I am thankful for being able to make a living in a foreign country – spend my money on rent, groceries, electricity, water and somehow manage to send money back to my family. I do good sir/madam hope that if the situation was reversed you would find a way to make a living as a piece of driftwood in another country.
Additional fees for work permits means more revenue for government.
More revenue for government means more money to spend and an addiction to the new source of revenue.
Once addicted to the new source of revenue government will continue to issue more and more work permits to feed their habit.
What a vicious cycle.
Beats income tax ….and places controls on employing foreigners if a Caymanian can do the job.
Go Dan.
Exactly. Businesses understand the language of money. They want to play, they have to pay. Caymanians (and our wider society) will be the beneficiaries. This is an excellent idea.
They could establish this simply by increasing WP fees for unskilled jobs. No need for a raft of new laws and regulations.
Good way to reduce Jamaican and 3rd world imports, hopefully.
At least Dan is acting on something we all complain about, so let him.
Stop wasting our time with your quibbling over quarters. Even $10/hour isn’t a living wage for a Caymanian. Expats will sacrifice and live hard for 7 years, knowing that the exchange rate allows them to start a good life back home. Caymanians don’t have that option. What has to happen first is genuine enforcement of Immigration law. Then, if we raise the minimum wage, Caymanians can take those positions.
No Caymanian wants to be a nanny, helper, gardener, barber, car washer etc. These are all work permit holder jobs. These jobs are owned by ‘Caymanians’ but usually paper Caymanians and these people hire their own people (Fiipinos/Jamaicans) with no real jobs. They arrive in Cayman with no work and have to look for days work/sell food out of their house/prostitution.
“No Caymanian wants to be a nanny, helper, gardener, barber, car washer etc. for an unlivable wage”
FTFY
The CINP is desperate and will be lucky if they win 2 seats.
There are not enough Caymanians to fill all the jobs on the island, especially the low skilled workers that are hired to serve the highly skilled workers who live in expensive houses and require gardners, pool cleaners, domestic helpers etc., to maintain their home. When the go out to dinner, F&B servers are required serve them their dinner, wash their dishes, chop up the onions etc.
Stop pandering, Dan. You know better than this.
Dan and Andre bring us hope of relief from the nasty stranglehold we are suffering at the hands of Mac Kenneth Juju Saunders Dumbest Dumb, and uneducated stragglers hanging on to PPM’s coat tails.
Take this opportunity Cayman to put back honesty and service into our leadership.
We’re at rock bottom now and can only go up with a complete change.
Make the employers pay a livable wage and you’ll realise just how many Caymanians there are, and that they are more than willing to do the work that they happily did for decades before the massive importation of impoverished immigrants that has happened in recent years.
work permits for entry positions or positions or positions paying at or near minimum wage should not exist. Work permits should only ever be granted when specialty positions cannot be filled by local workers and only AFTER the person requesting the permit can also prove that someone within the pre-existing company cannot be promoted trained to fill that position.
Why are there work permit holders doing jobs that require 0 specialty training? holding entry level positions?
Because who is going to do it? Will Caymanians be willing to work as Nannies of the hundreds of babies in the island?
For $6 per hour I would like to make thousands of babies in the Caymans.
Elon
Other countries don’t need so many nanny’s. Govt should look at encouraging preschools for young babies. Otherwise mothers stayed home or the extended family took care of the baby. There is no need for this influx of low income/low education nanny’s with their poor driving skills, ignoring a whole society of brats. It is very obvious the nanny’s don’t truly care for the children, you can clearly see it when the groups of them get together at Camana Bay. They only show their employer their best side when they know they are being watched.
Hope that includes all the Brackers coming over here to take our jobs!
They would prefer not to come, but thanks to their super-Minister Julianna employment opportunities are few and far between (yet, they keep voting for her)
This was definitely not written by a Caymanian.
Hell no, I have a wonderful Nanny that it is taking care of my baby, and I need to renew her WP soon, I ain’t got more money to pay some additional fee now too.
Also, I am Caymanian and I wouldn’t trust a fellow Caymanian to take care of my baby, sorry but us Caymanian bring in too much drama and barely if any, wants to work as a nanny.
You can’t cover the sun with a finger, it is the truth.
Raise your own damn children.
Having someone to help me with taking care of my child while I work from 8:30 to 5pm to make ends meet, is not raising my child?
You will understand when you have your own and if you already have, then you are the perfect definition of an ignorant person.
4.51..And have a job at the same time…?
What a nasty insensitive and ignorant post 4.51.
There’s not a damn thing Caymanian about you, great pretender.
And how exactly you arrived at conclusion?
Exactly right. This was a dramatic performance.
Nanny or helper? Baby, or pre-schooler (who can and should be in pre-school)?
And you can cover the sun with your finger if you hold the your finger close enough to your eye. Just remember to close the other one.
And is the father or any of your extended family around to help? Just asking…
Baby daddy don’t care, he gone back ayaad.
In the post I said “Nanny”, “Baby”
And you are not covering the sun with that one finer my love.
Anyways, Dan and NCIP = vote no!