Anguilla’s labour minister is urging residents to apply for local job openings before raising concerns about positions being filled by foreign workers.
Speaking at a government press conference on 16 December, Kenneth Hodge said that positions often go unfilled by locals, forcing employers to hire workers from abroad.
“As I speak to workers across the island, there is a complaint or a perception that we give away our jobs to foreigners by way of work permits,” he said.
“And I say to the workers, many of those who I speak to – did you apply?”
He explained that the Department of Labour often finds, when receiving a work permit request, that no one from Anguilla applied for the advertised job.
“So I’m going to encourage workers here this afternoon, when job vacancies come up in whatever sector there is, apply,” he said.
“Send a copy of the application to the Labour Department, because when the applications for work permits come in, we ask a lot of questions.
“One of the main questions we ask, we want to know – who were the local applicants that sent in the letters of application for these jobs.”
He said that when local people do apply but get refused for a job, the labour department looks at why they were not considered and what were the areas of deficiency.
“So workers in Anguilla, you cannot not apply for positions and then blame the minister and the Department of Labour for not looking out for your interest,” he said.
“We can fight a battle for workers when they themselves step up to the plate and apply.
“We can’t fight a battle when the property, or whichever employer says, but look, we advertised, no one from Anguilla applied.”
Hodge added that the company is free to advertise wherever they like but must also make their job vacancies available in Anguilla.
“I’m very proud of the work that the Labour Department has been doing on their social media page, in advertising the local jobs available, they have quite an extensive spread of applications there,” he said.
Job openings can be found on Anguilla Focus here.
