Landscapers say expat ban is bankrupting firms

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6: Bermuda’s landscaping industry is being destroyed by the Government moratorium on foreign workers, firms warned on Tuesday.

Bobby Baron, president of the Landscaping Association, told the Bermuda Sun he knew of one company that was on the verge of going bust and claimed more would follow.

The association’s head and some of its members met with Trade and Industry Minister Kim Wilson on Friday for “crisis talks”.

Manpower

Mr Baron urged the Government to abandon the policy requiring landscape gardening positions to be filled by Bermudians.

But Government would not be drawn on a time limit for the moratorium.

Minister Wilson said she understood the landscapers’ concerns and that the moratorium had created “real job opportunities” for Bermudians.

Mr Baron, who has run the landscaping firm Land Care & Gardening for the last 14 years, said: “The Minister was most accommodating to meet us and has been very pleasant to work with on a one-to-one basis.

“But we are between a rock and a hard place and in the last three of four months the moratorium has really begun to bite.

“There is already one landscaping company that will soon be out of business because of the moratorium and it will not be the last.

“The more established companies have been hit in two ways. They don’t have the manpower so they will lose clients.

“They will lose out on investments too as their trucks and machinery will be sitting in the yard.

“The medium-sized firms will squirm about to try and make ends meet and should be able to manoeuvre their way through this at a loss.

“It’s the new smaller firms that have just three of four employees that will really be hit hard. “

Mr Baron said members of the Landscaping Association were “frustrated” because they could not plan their business.

He said: “In business it is advisable to have a five year plan. With this in place it would almost be impossible to have a five week plan because you don’t know how many employees you will have.”

He claimed he has been forced to change the way his company operates to deal with the Government restrictions. 

Mr Baron added: “Every Bermudian has the right to be in business without having to jump through these very difficult hoops of fire they have stuck up in front of them.

“Most of these companies are run by Bermudians so in my mind it is a false moratorium because Bermudians are suffering.

“You cannot take people from an industry who have built it up for three decades and remove them and expect to replace them with someone in three months.

“The industry will lose millions of dollars by the end of the year if the moratorium continues.

“If anyone thinks that there are people lining up outside our doors looking for these jobs they are wrong.

“If Government had spoken to the shareholders before implementing this we would not be in the mess we are now.

“As it is now they will ruin a section of the economy that is struggling to hold on.

“The only light at the end of the tunnel I see is the freight train coming the other way. I would suggest everyone steps back against the wall. It is that bad.

“The only thing we are sure of is that the moratorium is not going to end.

“There is still a lot of confusion about how the appeals process works — I know of companies who are being asked to choose one out of three applications to pursue while other firms have got 100 per cent of what they have asked for.”

Last night Minister Wilson urged Bermudians to take advantage of the job opportunities available in the landscaping profession.

“I am pleased that this group has become a cohesive unit and the members are now prepared to work together for the betterment of their industry,” she said.

“I expect that as the organization matures, this will have a positive impact on training and certification and we will see more young Bermudians working in the industry.

Opportunities

“As evidenced by the number of migrant workers that have been required to settle their affairs and leave Bermuda owing to the moratorium on work permits, clearly real job opportunities have been created for Bermudians who are prepared to work in the sector.

“Efforts have been made as a part of the appeals process to work with the sector to retain supervisors, team leaders and trainers to ensure that the specialized talent is available within each company to assist with training the new employees.

“I am confident that this will go a long way to ensuring the ongoing delivery of services by the various landscaping companies, notwithstanding the requirement to recruit new staff to fill the vacant posts.”