‘Labour Dept needs kudos from all around’- Hon Pickering
Speaking in the House of Assembly on April 26, 2018, Hon Pickering said the Ministry of Natural Resource and Labour is a good example of public servants who go above and beyond to ensure the Territory continues to grow from strength to strength.
“The issues in Natural Resources are also the most difficult for any government because, apart from the work permit fees in the Labour Department, which is a significant part of Government revenue, the Ministry itself does not generate much other revenue although in the area of the non-belonger land holding licenses the inland revenue does collect a significant of revenue from the work that is done in the Ministry. So there are a lot of unsung heroes in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour…”
Former Labour Commissioner and Seventh District candidate with the Opposition Virgin Islands Party (VIP) in the 2015 General Elections, Oleanvine Pickering-Maynard, while being interviewed by Paul A. Peart aka ‘Gadiethz’ on Fresh Radio Vybz on February 25, 2018, had blamed Labour Department for the long lines being witnessed at Immigration Department.
“There are certain things that the Immigration Department cannot do unless Labour Department processes what needs to be processed.”
The former Labour Commissioner told Mr Peart that “…some of the bottlenecks that you see ending up in immigration, could be attributed to the Labour Department not being up to par from where it used to be, or where it should be, in order to assist the Immigration Department with getting the people processed and out of there…”
No issue of having people in the sun
Following the hurricanes of September 2017 the Immigration Department had seen long lines for services and many persons had to stand in the sun while they awaited service. Many too turned up at the department in the wee hours of the morning in the hope of being attended to early.
This had cause much uproar on social media, forcing the department to introduce an appointment system.
And according to Hon Pickering, the Labour Department did not have an issue where persons had to be in long lines in the sun waiting for service.
“Sometimes the Labour issues get confused with immigration. The Labour Department has not had an issue of having people out in the sun waiting to receive services. In fact, Madam Speaker, the Labour Department needs kudos from all around.”
No congratulations?
Meanwhile, Hon Pickering noted that the Labour Department has faced many challenges following the floods and hurricanes of 2017, and staff had to be relocated.
He said; however, that the Department has persisted despite the challenges and between October 2017 and March 2018, the Labour Department processed a total of 749 work permits. For the entire year of 2017 the Labour Department processed 9481 requests for work permits, including renewals and new work permits.
“What is important to recognise, Madam Speaker, is that since the storm they have processed almost 2000 temporary work permits, and between the work that is done in the Ministry itself and the Labour Department on a daily basis, certainly I as a Minister sign off on work permit waivers, because we initiated a policy that we could give a work permit waiver for up to 3 months and if the persons are in the country and like to stay longer than that they can apply for the work permit. I have not heard anybody complain about that system, and I haven’t heard anybody congratulated the Labour Department or the Ministry for the work they have been doing, but that has been literally the engine that has kept this economy running.”
Hon Pickering added that the Department had been working without internet for most of the time.
Lowest funded Ministry
It was also noted by Hon Pickering that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour gets 4.49 percent of the total budget or a total of $16M to run the entire Ministry, which, according to him, is the lowest of any Ministry.
“With respect to development projects, only 2% of the total monies that are made available for development projects, a mere $1.6M, is allocated to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour to do any sort of development work.”
18 Responses to “‘Labour Dept needs kudos from all around’- Hon Pickering”
9,481 applications processed in 2017. That's 790 a month or 40 per day (over 20 working days in a month)... but then he thinks the department deserves 'kudos' for processing 749 permits in the 6 months from October to March... that's 124 a month, or just 6 per day!
Maybe I'm missing something, but a reduction in output from 40 per day to 6 per day really doesn't sound worthy of praise.