Less than 12 weeks remain for required companies to file Business Staffing Plans if they have not already done so.
Mrs. Harris |
Business Staffing Plan Board Chairwoman Sophia Harris said companies with 15 or more work permit holders that fail to file the staffing plans by the year-end deadline will find a harsh penalty if the proposed amendments of the Immigration Law are passed by that time.
‘If you do not have a Business Staffing Plan and you are required to have one, and if you don’t have one by 31 December after this law goes into effect, you won’t be able to get work permits from the Work Permit Board or temporary work permits from the Immigration Department,’ Mrs. Harris said at the Council of Associations’ Immigration Forum last week..
The law requiring Business Staffing Plans for companies with 15 or more work permit holders has been in effect since 1 January 2004. Mrs. Harris noted that some companies have just not complied with the law.
‘The only way to get your attention on this topic is to not give work permits,’ she said.
Speaking on the subject this week, Mrs. Harris said that under the current law, there are no ramifications for not complying with submitting Business Staffing Plans.
‘In fact, the Law seems to suggest a company could just continue getting its permits from the Work Permit Board,’ she said, adding that this issue was one of the loopholes addressed in the recent review of the Immigration Law.
Not all companies will have to comply with the 31 December deadline. Mrs. Harris said that under the provision of the proposed amendment, companies that have reached 15 work permit holders recently will have six months from the time they reached that point to file their Business Staffing Plans.
Mrs. Harris said businesses owners should not fear the Business Staffing Plan application form.
‘I had to do one [for my company],’ she said. ‘It’s not terribly complicated.’
The important thing is for companies to file an application prior to the deadline.
‘As long as [required businesses] submit the plan, until we actually sort out their final Business Staffing Plan, they will be able to get work permits,’ Mrs. Harris said.
The Board tries to deal with the Business Staffing Plans it receives within a month after receiving them, although Mrs. Harris admitted that timeframe is challenging.
‘We really try to concentrate on the work permit applications we receive so that we don’t have a backlog,’ she said. ‘We just have to find the time to review [Businesses Staffing Plan applications].’
One benefit of having a Business Staffing Plan is that work permit grants take less time. While it is currently taking about three months for the Work Permit Board to review an application for a new grant, Mrs. Harris said the Business Staffing Board is processing new grants in an average of three weeks, as long as the application form is completed correctly.
Companies do not have to have 15 work permit holders to file Business Staffing Plans. Smaller companies can file plans on a voluntary basis and receive the various benefits of having them.
During last week’s Immigration Forum, Work Permit Board Chairman David Ritch pointed out that if all companies required to have Business Staffing Plans under the Immigration Law actually had them, it would transfer some of the workload for permit grants to the Business Staffing Plan Board. The Work Permit Board would then not have the kind of backlog on grants it has now.
Mr. Ritch singled out the construction industry for not submitting Business Staffing Plans.
‘Contractors have consistently ignored the law to have Business Staffing Plans,’ he said.
‘There are some construction companies with 180 work permit holders and they don’t have a Business Staffing Plan.
‘There’s a hotel here with 700 work permits and it doesn’t have a Business Staffing Plan.’
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