Since the start of 2021 to date, 23 individuals have been arrested and $391,000 in administrative fines levied against local employers and work-permit holders found in breach of the Immigration (Transition) Act, Deputy Premier Chris Saunders has confirmed.
In a written response to queries from the Cayman Compass, he said the Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman compliance team is working closely with its boards to investigate concerns, some of which Business Staffing Plan Board chairman Richard Barton raised in a letter to Saunders and senior government members earlier this month.
Saunders said the team is working to “ensure those found in breach of the law are fined or prosecuted”.
“Already this year, more than $111,000 has been levied on offenders and five arrests were made. WORC enforcement operations will continue to be carried out based on information, complaints, and tips received from the public.”
In 2021, the WORC compliance team, according to statistics provided to the Compass, collected over $280,000 in administrative fines and arrested 18 people for breaches of the immigration law.
“This is up approximately $150,000 from the $130,000 that was collected in 2020,” he said.
Some of those offences include making false representation on applications, working outside of the terms of a permit, giving false statements and working without a permit.
Compliance crackdown
“The compliance team has also introduced a high-risk offenders registry – which is a more intelligence-led operation targeting such employers. This registry captures employers who have committed multiple breaches of the Immigration Act and places these applications under more robust checks and reviews of their interactions with other government departments,” adding, “Multiple applications have already been refused so far this year.”
However, Saunders acknowledged ongoing complaints about work-permit delays, saying, “it is no secret that some medium-to-large employers have not consistently provided opportunities to Caymanians who are qualified, experienced, willing to work and progress”.
“This culture needs to change. Our people must be given those opportunities as required by law. The WORC remit to process applications and the current backlog is widely known. Lesser known by businesses and the public are its duties to train and develop Caymanians and provide a job-matching and placement service,” he said.
Section 3 of the Immigration (Transition) Act (2022 Revision), he said, notes that those functions are a higher priority than the processing of work permits.
“While there is much focus on how long it takes WORC to approve work permits, the recruitment practices of some businesses are not being considered. We have seen many cases where work permits are going in right after the advertisement deadline. This is a clear indication that there was no intention to conduct a fair and open recruitment process,” he said.
To help streamline the procedure, he said, “One of the projects we intend to roll out this year is to have all applications submitted online to reduce the number of incomplete applications submitted and the processing time due to having to chase for outstanding information.”
WORC is also looking at an accreditation process to reward businesses with a good track record of giving Caymanians opportunities with faster processing times for their applications.
“We accept that majority of employers are good and decent corporate citizens, but, as noted in our Strategic Policy Statement, the Government intends to start naming those companies who continue the illegal and immoral practice of denying opportunities to Caymanians,” he added.
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As a Caymanian , I have been to several interviews where it is blatantly obvious the interview is only being conducted to support a work permit application. There are some recruitment agencies that seem to specialize in hosting such interviews. What would be helpful is if there is an ability to provide feedback to worc , so that they can review the application process or better yet a tip off hotline. It should not be hard to evaluate the validity of an application versus a permit manipulation.
The one place I see permits being abused is when you see adverts on FB where people are offering free services in exchange for accommodation. Or people sharing a helper but not sharing a work permit. Or permit holders having side hussles , such as air bnb management.
As for training, companies ares suppose to have a staff business plan which includes training. There are very few firms that actually have one , where they can demonstrate how junior staff have excelled to management.
We need the right Caymanians in the right jobs. Cayman already has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the region. If you want every Caymanian to have the job they really want, then government must accept that employers need to easily hire the people they need to stand-up their businesses and make room for Caymanians. Smothering local businesses with unqualified Caymanians and denying permits to businesses in need, only makes certain those local businesses will fail leaving LESS future employment for Caymanians.
There are approximately 1,000 Caymanians without a job and 10,600 work permits held up.
Assuming that every single one of these 1,000 people were qualified and willing to do these jobs that would still leave a deficit of over 9,000 jobs that will go unfilled.