Widespread abuse of the system has necessitated the proposed change in the Immigration Law to no longer allow employees on temporary work permits to continue working until their full permits are heard.
Work Permit Board Chairman David Ritch spoke heatedly about the abuse during the Council of Associations’ Immigration Forum last Friday.
‘The temporary work permit is being universally abused,’ he said. ‘Over 95 per cent of the permit applications [the Work Permit Board receives] are by persons who obtained a six-month temporary first,’ he said.
Temporary work permits are technically designed for true temporary positions, but businesses are using them as ways of getting fast approvals on applications.
‘The statistics we are seeing are telling us the persons here on temporary permits are overwhelmingly going to permanent permits,’ Mr. Ritch said.
Because they are approved by the Immigration Department and not the Board, temporary permits can be granted in a matter of days, while full grants are taking about three months right now.
There is also less scrutiny toward temporary permits, which do not require advertisements for the position as full work permits do.
‘Six-month temporary permits are being decided by a single Immigration officer,’ Mr. Ritch said.
‘I have a big problem with that. If the board is going to become a rubber stamp for the Immigration Department, then abolish the board.’
Mr. Ritch said the Immigration Board approves well in excess of 90 per cent of the applications it reviews.
‘We only turn down a small percent of applications.’
The problem, however, is that employers assume that everyone who gets a temporary work permit is going to get a full permit, Mr. Ritch said.
‘If I turn down just one, there’s a howl of protest like the world is going to end,’ he said. ‘Everyone expects every single person on a six-month temporary to get a grant.’
Mr. Ritch pointed out that the government is losing money through the abuse.
‘People wait to put in [the permanent] work permit application until five months, 28 days [into their temporary permits], knowing it will take us three months to get to it. If we then turn it down, they had three months [of working] for free.
‘It’s abuse of the system,’ he said. ‘We know what’s going on. We’re not stupid.’
Forum attendee Burns Conolly pointed out to Mr. Ritch that in industries like construction, employers often get a contract that requires very prompt hiring.
‘For many of us, time is the key factor for temporary work permits,’ he said, noting that businesses in the construction industry can not afford to wait the three months it takes now for the granting of a full work permit.
‘In three months, the job is often gone,’ said Mr Conolly.
Mr. Ritch said he understood that point, and also the point that temporary permits are sometimes used for employers to test the suitability of employees before giving them a long-term position.
While adamant that something had be done to curtail the abuse of temporary work permits, Mr. Ritch said the government was open to input on how to handle the situation.
‘The law is not passed yet,’ he said. ‘It’s not written in stone.’
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