More work permit applications are being rejected than approved by Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman (WORC), the Caymanian employment and immigration minister has said.
Michael Myles, speaking on Radio Cayman’s ‘For the Record’ programme on 21 August, said the department was rejecting a majority of applications.
He explained that he had instructed boards, administrators and the director to push back harder where a qualified Caymanian had been passed over.
“The Caymanian must be given priority. So, if you’re an employer, play fair,” he said.
“There’s no such thing as a work permit renewal. The law states that if a Caymanian is qualified for that job, that employer must hire that Caymanian.”
He said some employers were designing positions around a work permit holder, and that the department intended to challenge that more consistently, particularly in cases of discrimination against Caymanians applicants.
“I trust the director [of WORC]. I think he’s doing a great job… But there has been a lot of complacency within the department.
“We have to be able to push back to make sure that we do a better job,” he said.
He pointed to the WORC jobs portal as central to enforcement.
Employers are required by law to advertise vacancies on the portal, he said, and to record whether Caymanian applicants were interviewed and the reasons any were not hired.
Applicants should apply through the portal, he added, so that a record of their interest exists, saying that some employers did not acknowledge applications made outside it.
“We have a lot of very shady employers in our country. Certainly, a lot of shady hiring professionals that will not be honest about things like that,” he said.
Myles named financial services and the hotel sector as the two areas where Caymanians are most often passed over, saying complaints reached him from senior and white-collar staff as well as entry-level workers.
“I get calls from lawyers and persons who are in white-collar jobs who are saying, ‘I’ve been in this company five years, worked my behind off. All of my performance reviews have been phenomenal, but they are bringing in folks underneath me’,” he said.
The minister also set out labour law reforms that are being developed.
These included provisions on parental leave, adoption leave and antenatal care; a requirement for employers to provide a written statement of working conditions; clarification that the payment of gratuities is discretionary; and an information-sharing provision.
“All of these are things that should have been in labour law,” he said.
Myles said reform of the permanent residence points system was also “well underway”, restating that Caymanian status should be earned rather than bought.
