Speaking at a stakeholders meeting to address the issues affecting the Labour Department, Wheatley said his team has been advocating for more persons to be assigned to the department to help with the backlog of work-permit processing.

He said this assistance would be appreciated even if it’s just for at least two weeks to ease the burden.

“We’ve been in constant dialogue begging, pleading and asking, ‘please give us staff at Labour. The industry is hurting. We need staff’. We also wanted licenses … I think we got the licenses because we could buy them. However, I cannot assign a single person to Labour. That duty of the public service and its composition is square at the Governor and Deputy Governor’s feet. We can only beg and plead and complain and jump up which we have been doing,” the Labour Minister said.

Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, Joseph Smith-Abbott noted the ministry has been working closely with the Deputy Governor’s Office to see how best they can fix the staffing issue.

“We have indeed identified and brought a few individuals of various public service into Labour to provide some temporary assistance as well. I believe to date we have two or three officers who are in the department that currently can then render assistance to customers. I know that we have plans to augment another one,” Smith-Abbot said.

Only select officers can process new work permits applications

However, Acting Labour Commissioner Michelle McLean corrected the Permanent Secretary and indicated there is only one additional officer to date. The Labour Commissioner continued by addressing questions about the number of people who have the power to approve work permit applications.

“I basically deal with the new work permit applications and the Senior Labour Officer (SLO) who deals with the renewals and if she is not there, there is also somebody else who will fit in. There is the Employment Service Manager and other persons who assist. They do it if I am not available and if the SLO is not available but not concurrently,” McLean said.

The staff-shortage issue at the Labour Department has been a long-documented issue. In an appearance before the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) late last year, Second District Representative Melvin Turnbull said it was ridiculous for a working population of almost 20,000 persons to be assisted by only 20 workers.