The Cayman Contractors Association issued a statement Tuesday calling for a suspension of the immigration rollover policy until the shortcomings of the Immigration Law (2003) can be worked out.
The CCA also recommended that businesses be allowed to define 25 per cent of their staff as exempted employees who are not subject to the seven-year term limit.
Although it said it fully understood the objects of the rollover policy, the CCA outlined in the press release what it believed are six shortcomings of the Immigration Law, which hurt Caymanian companies by disrupting business continuity and attracting lower quality employees to the islands.
The press release comes just weeks after the Cayman Islands Tourism Association issued a similar statement of concern about the rollover policy.
‘It’s something we’ve been wrestling with for some time,’ said CCA president Steve Hawley when contacted about the press release. ‘When the Tourism Association came out with a statement, we felt it would be helpful to offer our perspective at this time.’
Mr. Hawley said all the members of the CCA were given the opportunity to read the press statement and make any suggestions for changes.
‘Members are not 100 per cent unified in their opinions of the rollover policy, but they agree that its enforcement now is causing hardship and that we need to stop and assess the situation before doing irreparable damage.’
Like CITA, the CCA statement said the rollover policy could seriously hurt its industry.
‘Many CCA members, due to the rollover policy, are facing the loss of their most valued employees, upon whom their businesses depend; individuals who cannot simply be replaced by new, unproven recruits.’
The press release stated that one of the CCA members had a company that was about to lose several key members of its staff. ‘He is understandably unable to rebuild his business from scratch to fulfil his existing obligations to clients. He is, therefore, facing the closure of his business.’
Mr. Hawley said there is a big problem for the construction industry in hiring Caymanians.
‘When it comes to native Caymanians, the construction industry is simply not attracting them,’ he said. ‘It’s just not happening.
‘The perception of construction work is that it is rough, dirty work, where you wear dirty clothes and can get hurt. There’s very little prestige in it.
‘There are great opportunities to do well in construction, but young people would rather be working as bank tellers for less money.’
Mr. Hawley said he passed out a little survey to high school students attending a Technical and Vocational Education and Training Fair a few years ago, asking them how they ranked the prestige level of 10 different careers.
‘Construction worker came out at the bottom, just below drug dealer,’ he said, noting he had only put drug dealer on the list to learn the perspective of school leavers.
‘Although there is no reason to believe that they would have chosen to become drug dealers, it does demonstrate that construction is seen as the lowest of the low, and even being a drug dealer is more glamorous.’
Mr. Hawley pointed out that other industries, such as those of landscaping and hospitality, face similar challenges.
‘There has been much discussion that there are some industries that do not traditionally attract Caymanians,’ he said. ‘The rollover policy has a far greater impact on those industries because we cannot draw labour from our own population.’
The press release noted that in these types of industries, the rollover policy ‘disenfranchises hard working business owners and employees and serves only to eliminate staff who have proven themselves to local businesses and the greater community’.
The CCA press release stated that studies have shown that the percentage of employees that are essential for the continuation of a business has been establish to be about 25 per cent.
‘We are quite certain that is was never the intent of the rollover policy to damage the livelihoods of Caymanians and we therefore make the recommendation that the need for businesses to define 25 per cent of their staff as key (exempt) staff be recognised and accepted.’
Even with that recommendation, Mr. Hawley noted that some CCA members with smaller companies think the percentage should be even higher for exempt employees in the construction industry.
The CCA stated it did not think the Immigration Law should disrupt business continuity.
‘A key position does not define nor address the individual who holds that position,’ the press release stated. ‘It is not the role of Immigration to define hierarchy or company structure but rather to respond to business needs on an individual basis.’
The press release also noted the importance of the contacts made by workers during their tenure.
‘Careers are made on building relationships, contacts and liaising with suppliers and local authorities alike which, in turn, makes businesses run smoother. When this asset is interrupted, both employees and business suffer,’ the CCA stated.
‘Predictably, the essential employees do not always hold the top positions,’ the press release said. ‘Frequently, an essential person can be an exceptional secretary or specially skilled worker upon whose abilities the business has been built.’
Mr. Hawley gave some examples of lower-level workers who were invaluable to his company.
‘We had a secretary who handled things like procurement of materials,’ he said. ‘In that position, you have to be extremely persistent while remaining very friendly. That’s the successful method.
‘Finding someone with those talents is very rare; in fact we’ve only found two people in 27 years of business who had those talents. A business can’t simply roll over such an employee and find a suitable replacement.
‘There’s no question in my mind that the writers of the rollover policy had the good of Cayman at heart, but it does have serious flaws and that is why the CCA recommends that it be suspended until it can be corrected.’
The CCA said the rollover policy ‘will attract an overall lower quality of talent and character to the Cayman Islands and foster negative economic factors such as poor quality rental housing and insufficient inward investment, as well as creating a more transient workforce’.
‘The rollover policy may also have the unintended effect of forcing local business to forge foreign partnerships and other outsourcing means in order to maintain consistency, quality and fostering of relationships,’ the press release stated. ‘This would only serve to disenfranchise local workers and students returning home after tertiary education only to find fewer available jobs.’
The CCA said the need for local businesses to protect their core group of essential employees was not a privilege to be granted by Immigration, but the right of Caymanians to be able to own and operate a business.
‘It is our belief that any employee that a business recognizes as honest, hardworking and talented and is willing to employ for seven years is likely to be an individual worthy of tenure,’ the CCA stated.
There is some urgency in the CCA’s recommendation for a suspension of the rollover policy.
Although there is a perception that now that the Hurricane Ivan repair work is mostly complete, the construction industry will not need as many workers in the future. Mr. Hawley said this was not the case.
‘Demand is growing,’ he said. ‘I believe we will see the largest building boom Cayman has ever seen before. I anticipate that contractors will be turning business away in the future.’
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