By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE head of the Bahamas Contractors Association has pushed back against Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’s claim that foreign workers are needed to fill skilled labour gaps, arguing that most work permits go to unskilled positions while proposing a freeze on renewals for roles that recent school leavers could fill.

Leonard Sands said thousands of work permits currently issued in the construction sector are for roles like handyman and general labour, not technical trades.

He argued that if the skills gap were truly the main issue, more permits would reflect that.

“What we know is that the work permits in the abundance and the thousands represent unskilled labour,” he said. “So I think we need to do a better job of reading out what the skills gap is that we need to fill and create a programme to supply that need.”

During a PLP rally on Monday night, Mr Davis said there has been an increase in legal migration to meet rising construction demands, citing a shortage of skilled Bahamian workers.

According to Mr Sands, about 9,000 out of 10,000 work permit holders in the construction sector are unskilled.

He proposed a freeze on renewals for general labour work permits in positions that recent school leavers could fill.

“There’s 2,500 out of the 5,000 people who leave high schools [each year that] are young men,” he said.

Mr Sands argued that this policy shift must be accompanied by serious investment in training. He said he has long advocated for a national school of construction, independent of the Ministry of Education and specifically designed to train 10,000 people annually.

While acknowledging efforts by the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) and the National Apprenticeship Programme, he noted the current infrastructure cannot match the scale of the need.

“The larger issue at play is that the workforce needs unskilled labour,” he said. “The amount of unskilled labour it needs can’t be supplied 100 percent by the [Bahamian] workforce.”

He also questioned why foreign nationals are trained on the job for roles locals could perform.

He said the majority of unskilled labour permits go to Haitian nationals, but stressed that all workers in The Bahamas, regardless of nationality, are paid the same rate for the same job.

He supported tighter scrutiny for low-level permit applications, saying officials must challenge employers who apply for permits to fill roles such as a handyman that could be filled locally.