A national jobs registry is set to be introduced next month in a bid to increase transparency and ensure nationals are given priority for employment, following public outcry over foreign job advertisements that many believe could be filled by Barbadians, ministers said on Thursday.
“We have decided that during the month of July this year, we will establish a jobs registry. It will be located within the ambit of the Ministry of Labour,” Labour Minister Colin Jordan told journalists at a post-Cabinet briefing. “The intention is to ensure that Barbadians, those who are resident in Barbados, are able to submit their skills and their qualifications. It will be recorded in the registry.
“The purpose for that is for two reasons really. We will know the skills that exist in the country, but also when we have situations that Minister Abrahams spoke to, or similar, there will be the possibility of searching that database, so that we are sure that there are either skilled persons in Barbados or persons with the competencies or the educational qualifications that fit the particular requirement, or that there are none.”
Home Affairs and Information Minister Wilfred Abrahams had raised the issue of Barbadians expressing concerns over advertisements for employers applying for work permits, or that the notices have not resulted in any suitable domestic applicants.
“I just want to make something really, really clear. The fact that an employer posted that notice in the paper, that is one step in their application process. That does not mean the application is going to be granted, or that it is a foregone conclusion, or that it is a matter of rote that they are going to be successful,” Abrahams, the minister for immigration, said at the briefing before the jobs registry announcement.
The government cannot stop an employer from applying for a work permit, but once it is submitted, it is dealt with on merit and is subjected to a long and meticulous process, and success is not automatic, he added.
Following on from the home affairs minister’s comments, Jordan said the other component of the structuring and operation will be that persons posting advertisements for jobs will also now have to submit the advertisements and applications to the registry.
He said: “While persons in the general population can submit applications based on having seen or heard the advertisement, we also made provision to allow the Ministry of Labour and the Barbados Employment and Career Counselling Service that will be administering the registry, to allow them to be able to respond as well.
“We are conscious of the fact that not all Barbadians, not all residents of Barbados, look at the newspaper every day. And so, it is not difficult at all to miss an advertisement. And sometimes, I am sure, many Barbadians have heard persons saying that they only heard about the advertisement or the vacancy after the closing date.”
Jordan said the government’s responsibility is to make sure that Barbadians who want to work and are capable of doing so, and are qualified in a particular area, are given the opportunity to use their skills to earn a living, to develop themselves, to take care of their families and their own needs, and to work towards the development of the country.
“That is the reasoning, the rationale behind setting up this jobs registry,” he added. “We believe that it will bring significant transparency to the process of advertising, hiring, retaining the skills and talent that workers and potential workers bring to the job market.
“We believe it is a policy that is part of what we in this business call active labour market policy; and our responsibility to ourselves, our responsibility under international labour standards, is to make sure that there are provisions that allow for potential workers to be able to take advantage of the vacancies that exist.”
The labour minister pledged to share more details concerning the logistics and functioning of the registry after fine-tuning to ensure it works for all residents.
This will be done over the next three weeks, so that in July, the government would be in a better position to announce further information on how it will operate, he told reporters.
He said: “We believe it will redound to the benefit of the country, and while it brings that level of transparency, we will be able to address the issue that gnaws at many Barbadians, that is, of seeing an application in the newspaper that gives the impression that a person will be getting a work permit for a particular position that Barbadians generally feel could be satisfied by somebody who is already resident here.”
Home affairs minister Abrahams earlier warned employers to operate within the law regarding job vacancies, telling them to desist from posting “bogus” qualifications.
He explained: “There will always be a need to source skills external to Barbados. We have great capacity in Barbados, but at some points in time, you will have to source resources outside of Barbados to fill a particular skill set. But employers have to follow the law. We have to satisfy the abilities of Barbadians and residents of Barbados first, before looking outside to fill any jobs.
“Persons should not seek to get around that, with bogus job qualifications or bogus requirements, and the Immigration Department is alert to it; and we are urging employers, do the right thing. Source locally first, before looking outside. Do the right thing.”
He continued: “Publish qualifications that actually relate to what it is that has to be done, as opposed to qualifications that are designed to create a vacuum that you have to fill from overseas. Follow the law.”
The Immigration Department would not be approving applications for jobs it knows can be sourced here, said Abrahams, referring to such jobs as office assistants and tree climbers.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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