By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday said the Mexican workers hired to rebuild Abaco’s Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club may be re-engaged while reaffirming the long-standing policy that qualified and available Bahamians get first preference.

Keith Bell, minister for labour and Immigration, said the Davis administration will not approve work permits for expatriate workers if Bahamians are qualified, available and willing to perform the work.

When asked if this means the work permits issued to Baker’s Bay’s Mexican workforce will not be renewed, he asserted that particular case was “misconstrued”. Mr Bell said: “We have what’s called a global workforce down there at Baker’s Bay. You would recall that following the devastating hurricanes, Baker’s Bay was completely decimated.

“So in order to get those homes up and reconstructed, we needed to bring in foreign labour because the local level wasn’t sufficient given the widespread damage - not just down there on those islands, but all of the islands which were ravaged.”

Baker’s Bay’s reconstruction was projected to cost more than $400m over three years from September 2019, with over 470 persons employed property-wide. The Mexicans were to be employed on a rotation basis, with more than 100 brought in initially to kickstart post-Dorian reconstruction at the high-end Great Guana Cay development.

Mr Bell said: “The former administration agreed to bring on what is called a global workforce. That is where they would be allowed to bring in so much persons and they could rotate them, and that soon expires.

“So we would wait to see what would happen based on the progress they’ve made, and reconstruction of those homes. So once that is done, then the Government will make a determination whether or not to extend or to ensure that once that global workforce’s time expires, they will have to leave the country.”