International business leader David Ezekiel is to engage a team of top immigration lawyers to work out ways to stave off a threatened brain drain from six-year term limit policies.
He will fly to London at the weekend and the mission has the blessing of Government who stressed it is keen not to discourage talent and harm international business.
Under the term-limit policy, which will begin to bite in April, work permit holders who have not been granted key employee status and thus the chance of remaining for another three years or more will be turfed out.
Mr. Ezekiel said it might be possible to let work permit holders sign away any claim to permanent residency rights in return for a relaxation of the rules.
He said: “That’s one of the options we are looking at.
“But international law might protect people from signing away their rights.”
Some within the business community believe the matter is made more complicated with longstayers likely to have a claim to citizenship if Bermuda went independent – a situation Government is keen to avoid.
Bermuda Employers Council executive director Martin Law said: “The need is for Government not to be in a position where people hold residency based on time continuously spent in Bermuda.
“If there is a legal way around this the Minister is prepared to listen.”
The matter was partly addressed by the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act 2002 which granted limited residential rights to immigrants who arrived before 1989 while barring automatic rights for those who arrived after that date.
But Mr. Law said: “My understanding is the Minister believes that isn’t enough.”
Businesses have argued the term-limit policy is unsettling as experienced people will be lost only to be replaced, in most cases, by expatriates given the shortage of labour in Bermuda where more than 25 percent of jobs are held by foreigners.
Recently Labour and Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess admitted Bermuda was always likely to need imported workers, with more than 8,000 needed on current standings – even if every Bermudian had their desired job.
Mr. Ezekiel said: “I am going to London to meet with some people with no preconceptions to see what the options are. We are talking to the very top people in the field. One is hoping they have been there before in different circumstances and they might tell us something we absolutely didn’t know about.
“It is the absolute start of the process.
“We don’t think it is too late. It’s a time when I think both sides realise the ramifications of this policy,” said Mr. Ezekiel, who is the chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Business (ABIC).
Junior Labour and Immigration Minister Wayne Caines said Government was keen to work with business on the issues.
He said: “It is something we are committed to – the six-year term limits but it is something we are willing to discuss and investigate further.”
He said Government’s relationship with ABIC was harmonious.
“Their concerns have not fallen on deaf ears and are being investigated.”
He said Mr. Ezekiel was going to London to get a team of barristers and the barristers would report to Government their findings and see if a solution can be found.
Senator Caines added: “Government is not saying to business you have to leave after six years.
“A key employee can stay up to nine years. Even then the department of Labour and Immigration will look at things on a case by case basis, especially as it pertains to international business.”
He stressed Government understood the importance of international business.
“We will do nothing to interfere with that relationship. We will build on the healthy dynamic that exists between the Government and international business.
“But the caveat is we have to establish a balance between the needs of international business and the needs of the Bermudian public housing, jobs and succession planning, traffic congestion.
“The six-year term limit will be in place but we are looking at a number of options to make it palatable and workable.”
“The emphasis right now should be to training Bermudians to take their rightful place in the world.”
United Bermuda Party leader Wayne Furbert said the term limit policy as put forward by Government was not in the Island’s best interest and was more for show.
“We see it as counterproductive. Just to replace non-Bermudians with non-Bermudians does not make sense to us.
“It creates a revolving door for expatriate workers whereby we replace workers who have come to know Bermuda with those who don’t.
“One could argue that those who know Bermuda better are better positioned to be good productive citizens while they are here.”
He said term limits were an anti-business measure creating unnecessary uncertainty in the international business sector which drove the Bermuda economy.
Stressing the need for education reform to expand opportunities for Bermudians Mr. Furbert said: “We will review the term limit policy with a view to striking the right balance between the needs of the international business sector and the needs and capabilities of our people.
“Right now the policy is a blanket policy and arbitrary. We believe the situation is controllable enough to be handled on a case-by-case basis.”