The President of the Abaco Chamber of Commerce is commenting on the granting of work permits in the country. This comes after Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis announced the government’s policy of ensuring that qualified Bahamians in country or abroad are considered in filling vacant positions.
Daphne DeGregory-Miaoulis opined, “I think the issue really is more about training Bahamians to be able to take over from the foreign employee and this is something that I think the administration perhaps needs to pay closer attention to.”
The Chamber President said there is no sense implementing rules and regulations when they are not being enforced.
Regarding the increase work permit fees DeGregory-Miaoulis said, “if there is a definite need for someone to be employed on a work permit cause no Bahamian is available to do it. I don’t think the employer should be penalized by charging then beyond what is reasonable. The fact of the matter is we have labour limitations, especially in skilled labour.”
