was appalled to learn that the Cayman
Islands Tourism Association (CITA) have stated they could only find
six Caymanians out of 102 potential employees to fill the vacant
tourism jobs.

It is very obvious that a number of
employers are already getting ready for our tourism industry to open
its doors again and 'attempt to discredit Caymanians and justify
using cheap labour.'

Those are not my words but Newlands MLA
Alva Suckoo, who was speaking to CNS.

He said he was unable to find the list
of jobs reportedly behind the drive, and despite being a partner, the
National Workforce Development Agency was not given the list either!

He further said he is convinced some
bosses are justifying their work permit applications by capitalizing
on the alleged failure of the job drive.

The International College of the Cayman
Islands provides an Associate of Science Degree in Business class but
taking the course and qualifying doesn't automatically ensure you a
job.

You see, the majority of tourism jobs
are for low skilled workers and that means low pay. We have a minimum
pay scale here. Is that the reason why employers don't want the
Caymanian labour that is readily available? Is it much cheaper to
employ overseas labour on work permits ? Of course it is.

It is a well reported fact that tourism
has a high labour turnover with wide range of remuneration levels and
schemes,

We rely on tourism to feed the coffers
of the government so that we all live here can also benefit. Is this
why we tend to turn a blind eye to what is happening. Job
descriptions for the most menial of jobs, including first entry ones,
are deliberately written to discourage our local jobless from
applying.

The low annual average wages paid in
hotels, restaurants and similar establishments are due to
industry-specic characteristics such as paying only minimum wages
because of tips and hiring a substantial amount of part-time work.

If the bar is raised too high very few
Caymanians will fit the bill, so why is it lowered for those who need
work permits?

I leave the last words to Suckoo:

“It goes without saying that we could
all benefit from further education and training. This is not unique
to Caymanians,” Suckoo added. “But I am very disappointed that
many tourism businesses continue to ignore the available labour pool
of capable Caymanians and continue to bypass them in favour of
persons from jurisdictions who have created economies based on
remittances from abroad and whose academic standards are lower than
ours. It is a disservice to our people for CITA to declare that they
could only find six Caymanians out of 102 potential employees when
they cannot now provide a report on the persons they attempted to
hire.”

To read all his interview with CNS go
to:
https://caymannewsservice.com/2015/02/cita-job-drive-manipulated-says-mla/