EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was not surprised at all by the comments of the director of labour regarding unemployment and the expatriates working in the hotels. Recently there has been a noticeable increase in foreign middle management in the hotels especially in the food and beverage department. With unemployment being as high as it is and the relatively good sized talent pool of Bahamians to recruit from why are there so many expats working in the hotels? Why are veterans like Colin Johnson, Mario Stevenson, Oral Jones, Charles Missick, Steve Bethel and others with more than a hundred years of experience being sidelined for some twenty something year old rookie expats that come here, learn from Bahamians and build a resumé to take back to wherever they came from. These men have knowledge that cannot be learned at any university and are highly educated with years of experience. Why are they being marginalised?

The following are statements made by the Minister of Labour senator Dion Foulkes while on a radio talk show. “‘The prime minister has given me directions to ensure that no foreigner gets a permit where there is a Bahamian available to do the job.‘ Mr Foulkes told the show’s host.”

For example, Atlantis has an agreement where they are capped off with a certain number of permits. normally if you have an investor come in he would want persons that he has been working with to enhance his investment and that is understandable. But where that is not the case we have to ensure, because we have a serious unemployment problem, and it goes back to what was in the Speech from the Throne. “We had an application from a major hotel for a food and beverage director. I declined it, because there are Bahamians who are trained in food and beverage in this country who are unemployed and we know who they are and we are sending some of them to that hotel to be interviewed.” Mr Foulkes was asked: “What about expat cooks and restaurant managers? There is a major hotel that boasts of having foreign restaurant managers and cooks”.

What is most disturbing about the expats is some of them are very disrespectful. They talk down to the line staff while exploiting our naive young men and women. They come here on two years’ work permit that is extended to five, ten years and more. We are not talking about general managers or Vice Presidents, we are talking about restaurant managers and cooks. Both governments have allowed this to go on unabated for too long. They are doing the same job as their Bahamian counterpart, but are being paid far more. Even though their skills and qualifications are not on par with the Bahamian. In fact they don’t understand the complexity of the community as well as their Bahamian assistant, but it doesn’t matter. Foreigners are being hired even though there is no shortage of trained Bahamians. Matter of fact it’s believed that many of these positions are not even advertised. It’s gotten to the point where Bahamians unfortunately, even though they are aware stay silent on the issue for fear of being victimised if they speak out. It is known to have happened.

Some Bahamians, especially those who do not work in the hotel, respect expats more than they do Bahamians assuming they are more disciplined and hardworking. Truth be told, like in every profession, there are shortcomings and expats are no different. The Bahamas is not a racist country. Far be from it. So this is not about race. We respect all nationalities, and realise that there’s a need for foreign labour and probably will always be. The concerns are about foreign nationals holding jobs that Bahamians are qualified to posses and while here they should treat Bahamians the way they would want to be treated.

Something is not right and should be addressed immediately.

ANTHONY PRATT

Nassau,

November 6, 2018.