A classic political argument today with no foundation in reality:
"The assertion that every effort is made to employ Bermudians in this industry rings a little hollow when we can recruit over 200 people to work on the Hustle Truck."
Here's a suggestion for Sen. Burch: If he's so confident that the Hustle Truck crew make such great employees then hire them to process work permits and clear the backlog that those 10 poor overworked souls at Immigration are wading through.
It's stunning that a man who prides himself on being a straight talker can't take a little truth telling back at him. But that's the whole M.O. of this Government, they want to demagogue segments of the community and call press conferences with them as political props, but then demand that all dissent and any rebuttals be delivered behind closed doors.
At some point people have enough and you have to deal with the fallout of your ill-conceived poorly executed political decisions.
Isn't it time we dispensed with the BS and the posturing over all this? It's been going on for years now and Government is being completely unresponsive. The problem is that we're seeing the results of great politics but terrible public policy.
Firstly, term limits IS hurting Bermudian job opportunities.
As businesses are forced to end the employment of valued irreplacable-with-Bermudian-employees due to term limits they will send the individual, the Bermudian jobs associated with them, and the potential career paths for young Bermudians overseas. Quietly, but it's happening.
The problem for the local restaurant business and local businesses with no overseas operations? They have nowhere to send them, which is why you're seeing the local Chamber of Commerce being more vocal on this than the international companies who have options.
Secondly, the HUSTLE Truck program (which absolutely has a role to play and is a good program) is by definition aimed at people who have struggled to show up reliably for work and have behavioural issues.
The HUSTLE Truck program accommodates this, as they can decide on a day to day basis whether to go to work with the HUSTLE Truck. That may work for an ad-hoc Government program that doesn't have to make a return on its investment, but private businesses can't function like that.
The private sector needs reliable employees with no behavioural challenges. By Sen. Burch's own admission these workers present unique challenges as evidenced by the Payday Melee a few months ago.
Thirdly, Sen. Burch seems rather dismissive of blue collar workers, with his assertion that pot washers aren't key. They are if you're a restaurant which likes to serve food on clean plates. If you have no Bermudian applicants and don't want to have to churn through non-Bermudians to satisfy political demagoguery, the policy presents a legitimate business problem.
Fourthly, why is the PLP Government so disinterested in Bermudian business owners? They're Bermudian too aren't they?
Fifth, term limits do absolutely nothing other than churn expats, and add cost and lower productivity for businesses.
Contrary to the grumpy Senator's claim that he's protecting Bermudians, he's undercutting the very economy that will present them with attractive career paths down the road.
We have normal economic issues that present challenges without creating our own political ones to lump on top.
Sixth, if the bureaucracy is broken (or perhaps more accurately neglected), and can't keep pace with work permit applications, key employee applications etc., how is piling on whole new layers of bureaucracy such as housing licenses, spouse licences etc. a solution?
The PLP Government has broken the civil service through political interference, creating huge piles of unnecessary bureaucracy and not planning for their future bright ideas, yet the Minister wants to rage at those who actually have businesses to run which gainfully employee people creating jobs and oppotunities.
The problem here is that private businesses have to produce results or they'll go under; Government can just underperform and crawl along at a glacial pace, pawning off their inefficiencies onto the private sector, all while shouting down anyone who dare engage in public dialogue or dissent.
Seventh, the dirty little secret of term limits is that it's all about Independence, not protecting Bermudians' birthright or creating economic opportunities. The PLP don't want people for extended periods because they know that when they go for Independence again those residents present a problem.
That's before we point out that term limits are ensuring that our non-Bermudian workers feel a reduced motivation to get involved in the community. When you're made to feel so devalued and not particularly welcome (other than their dollar that is) you tend to exist in an expat enclave, which then becomes an argument used against them.
Even if the goal behind term limits was noble, it's a bad idea because of the age old law of unintended consequences.
Those of us who work in the private sector - where we aren't insulated from under-performance and don't have the luxury of simply raising taxes and mandating compliance - know that we are steadily eroding not just confidence in the island as a desirable platform to operate out of, but also are chasing away future career paths for our next generation.
Posted by Christian S. Dunleavy