Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn has revealed that the government received requests for 9,270 work permits for the period August 2020 to May 2022 but has only granted 4,847 of those.
He disclosed the numbers while responding to questions last Thursday raised by Opposition Member of Parliament Tabitha Sarabo-Halley in the National Assembly.
Benn said that 566 companies requested and were eligible for work permits in the period under review. Providing a breakdown of the companies, he submitted that 65 stores, 52 supermarkets, 32 restaurants, 7 security firms, 6 universities/schools, 9 construction companies, 7 embassies, 3 engineering companies, 17 hospitals/pharmacies, 9 churches and 29 trading companies all requested work permits.
Persons from 54 countries were granted work permits. They include America, Barbados, Bangladesh, Brazil, Britain, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominica, Ecuador, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Philippines, Germany, India, Italy, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, Surinamese, Trinidad, Turkey, Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, St Lucia, Singapore, Syria, the United Nations, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Additionally, a breakdown of the skillsets for those granted work permits showed that they include teachers, doctors, engineers, contractors, pilots, nurses, field technicians, materials engineers, a crane supervisor, security guards, electricians, a site manager, chef, construction engineer, building inspector, surveyor, pipe fitter, gardener, boiler and heavy equipment operator.
There have been questions about the number of work permits granted to foreign companies. Observers have been contending that government should ensure that qualified Guyanese are granted job opportunities before companies can import labour. However, several companies have been complaining about the challenges they face in acquiring skilled labour.
Just recently, at the opening of the US$100 million Pegasus luxury suites and corporate centre, China Harbour Engineering Company’s Project Manager Gordon Chen highlighted the shortage of skilled labour for the project. He noted that while they tried to hire only Guyanese to execute the project, there was a severe shortage of skilled labour with the requisite knowledge to implement the plan. On that note, he said that they were forced to look outside of Guyana to meet that demand.
This week, Stabroek News reported that Amazon Caribbean Guyana Limited (AMCAR) was forced to shutter its Rosignol, West Bank Berbice Plant owing to shortages of labour and raw material.
“We [AMCAR] have a shortage of labour to get supply for the factory, so the factory is operating at twenty per cent of its capacity making the product too costly. So we tried, we involved agencies from the government, we tried several things, we’ve been trying for months but unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get back to our pre-COVID production,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AMCAR, Jean-Francois Gerin had said.
