239 work permit exemptions given out in 2011- Labour Report
In 2011, the Government issued 239 work permit exemptions on Tortola. No figures were submitted in the 2011 department’s annual report for Virgin Gorda.
A work permit exemption relieves an employee from having to obtain a work permit for employment in the Virgin Islands (VI). It is granted by the Minister for Natural Resources and Labour and it is this news site’s understanding that they may at time go to Cabinet for final approval.
A work permit exemption is granted for different reasons for example, a student not deem to belong to the Virgin Islands who have have gone through the school system (both primary and secondary), marriage to a Virgin Islander, and at the Minister of Labour’s discretion.
Work permit exemptions in some categories are no longer indefinite and may have to be renewed, for example students in the school system, and those issued through marriage.
In 2011, for example, the Minister for Natural Resources and Labour granted 118 work permit exemptions based on his discretion, while 83 new work permit exemptions were granted based on marriage.
Over the past three years, despite a local and global recession, the Labour Department still issued thousands of new work permits and renewed even more, while many Virgin Islanders claimed they could not find employment in their homeland.
The Labour Department is a government run Department which falls under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour.
It has as its mission, to promote good labour management practices at the work places, to ensure stable and harmonious labour relations between employers and employees and to protect the rights, wages, working conditions, safety, health and welfare of workers, through enforcement of the Virgin Islands Labour laws.
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