Pinoys

Were we naïve to believe that hotel development in Anguilla was really meant to benefit Anguillians? Now, why do I ask that question? There is a website that advertises jobs available for Filipinos. It is called Pinoy Abroad OFW Jobs. It is hosted by the POEA. I have been learning some new words. Pinoy is a demonym referring to Filipino people. As I understand it, OFW stands for “overseas foreign worker”. If I get it right, POEA stands for the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration. This is their advertisement that caught my attention:

Could someone tell me who is advertising these jobs in Anguilla to unemployed Filipinos?

The employment agency in question is Skyworld Business Merger Inc. Who is Skyworld? Who is it working for?

Did I repeatedly hear our government representatives assure us that the jobs of bartenders, bookkeepers, chefs, truck drivers, kitchen helpers, maintenance men, sales coordinators, housekeepers, sales staff, and waiters and waitresses, would be reserved for Anguillians? I thought that in future, only nuclear physicists and neural surgeons would be permitted to be brought in from overseas. I thought relatively unskilled jobs were absolutely reserved for all the youngsters coming out of school. Not to mention all the experienced hotel workers laid off by the half-full hotels, or made to work three days a week.

Note the numbers of positions offered in this one advertisement: room attendants, 20. Bartenders, 20. Bookkeepers, 5. Chefs, 25. Truckdrivers, 10. Kitchen helpers, 20. Maintenance men, 15. Sales coordinators, 10. Housekeeping staff, 15. Sales staff, 10. Waiters and waitresses, 30. I make that a total of 180 jobs on offer.

Does anyone remember the Chief Minister’s words at the groundbreaking ceremony for Viceroy? He said then, “We agreed to this project because we believe we have an obligation to find the wherewithal for all Anguillians to find something to do. . . . We will prepare the country for the youth of tomorrow and this is why we went ahead to agree for this project.”

Is this Philippine advertisement evidence of a sell out? If so, who has approved it?

Or, does Anguilla now enjoy such full employment that there is a desperate need to bring all these Asian workers to Anguilla?

Exploitation

Slave labour on the rise in Anguilla. The Chief Minister said to all of us in Anguilla just a few days ago that in these depressed economic times, it was necessary for the government to give preference to Anguillians over foreigners. He advised any foreign worker who was holding down a job that an Anguillian could do to leave our shores. He warned any unemployed foreign worker to leave the island immediately.

From the complaints that have been made to me, it seems that some of our legal foreign workers are being exploited mercilessly.

It is not as if this activity is new to Anguilla. How can we forget the amusement we all enjoyed back in the 1990s when Island Harbour fishermen took their boats to St Martin each morning. At the dock in Marigot they would hire Haitian illegal immigrants to dive for conch and lobster in deep water with defective scuba equipment. The Haitians were glad for the $5.00 a day they were offered. If one or two did not make it back to the surface, there was no one to complain. And, our fishermen’s bank accounts grew fat on the proceeds.

According to the Chief Minister’s PS, Foster Rogers, the number of work permits issued last year is 4,200. That is a lot of work permits for little Anguilla. That is about one third of our population [not counting the one thousand-odd Chinese and Indian workers who were initially confined to their containerized ghettos until our lax to non-existent enforcement authorities let them out to roam all over the island looking for work. For all statistical purposes, they are ghost workers who do not count.]

Some of our Anguillian building contractors learned from our fishermen. The construction industry is the major engine that drives the economy of Anguilla. Our building contractors like to employ foreign workers in preference to Anguillians. There are a number of reasons for this.

One, Vincentians, Dominicans, and St Lucians are docile and manageable. Unlike some annoying Anguillians who insist on being treated with fairness. Actually, best of all, these foreigners live in a state of perpetual terror of deportation.

Two, they are better qualified and more skilled than the average Anguillian unemployed construction worker, drug-dependent, semi-literate, lazy, school-reject that he tends to be. Technical workers from off-island go to trade school and get a certificate of competence. Ours are more likely to just drop out of school and demand a pass by the nearest rum shop at 7:00 in the morning on the way to work.

Three, they are so grateful for a job. We can pay them half of what we bill for their work, and pocket the balance. And, sweetness of all, we can make them in their desperation pay for their own work permits.

Four, we do not have to pay them their statutory holiday pay or overtime rates. Unless we get caught for not paying it. And, then, the worst thing that will happen is that we’ll be forced to pay them what we should have paid in the first place. With no penalty or disincentive. In this way, government actually encourages employers to rip off their workers.

Five, we can easily avoid the need to pay social security for them. We can even deduct from their pay their social security contribution, and then pocket it. Who in Social Security bothers to check construction sites? When was the last time you heard of anyone in Anguilla being prosecuted for any contravention of the Social Security statutes?

Six, job-hopping is strictly prohibited. They are indentured to you for the duration of the time they are permitted to be remain and be exploited in Anguilla.

Seven, the moment they complain, with the help and cooperation of the Immigration Department and the Labour Department you can fire them and have them deported from the island. Just claim you have no more work for them. Or, you can no longer afford them, and, pouff . . .

Eight, it helps if your cousin is Russel Reid, the Labour Commissioner.

Come on, Russel, we expect higher standards from you. No, they are not going to come to your office and complain in person to you. Not if they want to keep their jobs. You have to take the initiative and look out for their interests. You are expected to go out to the job places and check the employers’ books to see how well they are complying with our laws and regulations. Check with the workers personally, and in private. You have to double check your findings with Social Security. That is what you have all those inspectors for.

I am sure that the Chief Minister did not mean that it was OK for us to cruelly and illegally exploit foreign workers from our sister West Indian islands.

Taxes

“Taxes”. One correspondent has a complaint about the arbitrariness and apparent lack of transparency in the tax system of Anguilla. He writes,

“There are several issues relating to taxes that should be looked into. The most glaring are the differences between tax burdens taken on by local Anguillians and residents vs. those taken on by visitors. The increase in departure tax from Blowing Point is a major example of this. The new tax which will go into effect on January 1st will be US$5.00 - up from US$3.00. For a US$12.00 ferry ride, this amount equals almost 42% of the cost of the service.

Everyone uses the ferries and some would say it is a necessity. On the other hand, a US$415.00 round of golf on the Temenos Golf Course has a golf tax of US$3.00 per round which represents about 0.72% of the price of the cost of the service. Is it really reasonable or fair to have such a high tax on a ferry ride? Think of the differences in numbers between those who ride the ferries and those who will play golf. It does not seem to be fair to those of us who live in Anguilla and take on the majority of the tax burden anyway. And the golf course project has a twenty year duty free concession and is exempt from taxes on sales and re-sales (my understanding).

The new taxes for restaurants and hotels are also a bit strange. The new taxes are stated as:

EC$1,000 for a mobile restaurant;

EC$1,200 for a local restaurant;

EC$2,400 for an international restaurant;

EC$3,600 for a restaurant attached to a hotel or villa.

The big question is who will determine who has what type of restaurant and what are the criteria for deciding so?

Lastly, having just come from the Labour Department, I just discovered that security deposits for work permits have been increased. The security deposit is collected by Government in order that they will have the funds to deport a person who has had their work permit revoked or has been asked to leave the island for any reason. In previous years, the deposit to send someone back to the States has been in the neighborhood of EC$220.00, enough for a ticket to San Juan, PR. This year the deposit has increased by 400% to EC$888.44. When asked why this increase took place I was told that they had to purchase a ticket to New York, not San Juan. I told them I thought that the purpose of the deposit was to deport people back to their country and San Juan would suffice for getting a US citizen back to US soil, they replied that this year is different and this is what they do now.

A 400% increase with no warning? No letters? I never saw it in the paper or heard about it on the radio news or in House of Assembly.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for on the corruption site. It feels good to get it off my chest though.”

I have not checked the accuracy of these matters.  Does anyone have a comment?
Also, is it legal for the House of Assembly to delegate to a Minister the power to increase taxes?

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