Letter to the Editor
I think most would agree that our civil service is far too large for a country of our size. The problem is that to reduce staff levels, in an effort to reduce costs, is a minefield.
To make any Caymanian redundant only shifts their costs from wages to social benefit costs. Please don’t imagine for a moment that any former civil servants are going to be employed in the short term by the private sector – in anything like the numbers that are required to make any significant cost reductions to the civil service costs.
Civil service staff reductions should be restricted to non-Caymanians. By getting rid of ex-pats they should, by rights need to leave the island. They certainly should not qualify for social benefits and so their dismissal will not result in any continuing cost to government.
Before I go any further, I should state that I am not Caymanian – I have had PR for almost 20 years (without the right to work). I have rental properties, which provide my income and these have already been adversely affected by the reduction in permit holders (ex-pats) who form the basis of my renters. So I am arguing against my own self interests.
In addition, we have by all accounts in the region of 2,000 Caymanians – out of work and unemployed. Quite apart from any reduction in civil service staffing levels needed as a straight cost saving move we should put the onus straight on to government shoulders by insisting that at least 2,000 non-Caymanian workers (i.e. ex-pats) in any government controlled employer (NRA, etc.) are made redundant and they are replaced with the 2,000 currently unemployed.
Any Caymanian currently receiving any handouts from government – rent payments, utility payments, food stamps, etc., should be made to take one of these vacancies. If they refuse or do not carry out the job properly then they should be made aware that they will NOT receive any future government hand outs.
Painful as the above suggestions may be, I venture to suggest that they solve a few of our current problems.
We reduce our budget outgoings (by reducing the civil service salary bill), we do not increase our social costs (by restricting redundancies to non-Caymanians) and lastly we solve the unemployment problem.
Any politicians brave enough?????
Hugh Jampton
Related Videos
Well it’s an interesting suggestion. I’m not sure how many expats there are in the civil service, but generally they are the ones doing the jobs for which there is not a qualified and willing Caymanian.
I take the point about making the unemployed take up roles for which they are qualified. But, if we for example got rid of the expat Grand Court Judges who would take their place? Is there a Caymanian qualified and willing to take on Alistair Swarbrick’s role?
One very manageable step would be to insist that civil servants who reach retirement age actually retire.
I must say, I have to agree with this. Of all entities you would think the Civil Service would have the least amount of Expats on their payroll and be more willing to create entry level positions for new graduates. There should basically be no expat filling position in the Civil Service that do not require specializes higher education or skills that cannot be learned in the short term, for instance you should see any expats paid to do any kind of domestic level work for the CIG and jobs such as Office Clerks and administrator can easily be taught to bright young people.
I think the biggest issue is that since there are no income taxes in Cayman is it more lucrative for the CIG to have a lot of expats filling jobs on the island that if replaced by Caymanians would mean less money for them and they know this.
@NJ2CAY
True enough – but there is no financial incentive for CIG to hire expats. It’s in their interests for private sector companies to do so, for the work permit fee income, but that doesn’t apply to civil service jobs
Yep, Understood JTB, which is just more of a reason that it makes no since for them to have a lot of expats employed there, maybe since it’s the civil service they do not pay an expat fee. By the way does anyone know about how many expats work for the Civil service and what types of positions they fill? Just curious..