The Confederation of Guernsey Industry has welcomed the willingness of the President of Home Affairs to discuss concerns with the Island’s population laws and the new initiatives designed to help local businesses.
The industry group’s comments follow a meeting held last week with Deputy Rob Prow, the Population Management Office, Confederation of Guernsey Industry (CGi) chairman and a delegation of local companies from cleaning and facilities management, manufacturing, on-island transport, aircraft servicing and utility sectors.
The discussion covered short term and seasonal licenses, open market legislation, the time taken to process applications and the role of the Population Employment Advisory Panel. The businesses present wanted to explain the significant issues and obstacles they are encountering when attempting to recruit workers off-Island.
Dave Newman, CGi chairman, commented: “As a group, we appreciate Deputy Prow’s willingness to engage with us so he could explain the role of Home Affairs in supporting local businesses. Equally, this gave our members the opportunity to relay their firsthand experiences in how the law was working and the problems they’ve encountered.
“We understand there is no easy solution to easing immigration controls and these are due to the constraints of Brexit, the Common Travel Area and the limitations of the existing law. The Population Management team is certainly working extremely hard to engage with CGi members and other companies.
“Our concerns, however, remain so we are to maintain a regular dialogue with Home Affairs and Population Management and work to support member firms as best we can.”
Pictured: Left to right – Jill Le Tissier, Easyclean, Martyn Langlois, Ferryspeed, Dave Newman, CGi, Lance Vaudin, Vaudin’s Stonemasons, Kevin Burgess, Ferryspeed, Claire Archer, Easyclean
