Work-permit applications and other labour processes should have been moved online more than 15 years ago, and we were greatly disappointed when the government’s first such system failed in early 2022 after about seven months in operation.
We are glad the current government is trying again.
Deputy Premier Lorna Smith said this month that the Department of Labour and Workforce Development will launch a comprehensive online system — to include not only work-permit processing but also job applications — by the end of June.
This is great news. The step, if executed as intended, should eliminate the lengthy backlogs that have been a hallmark of the work-permit system for decades.
It should also relieve a large swathe of the workforce from spending hours each year waiting in lengthy lines to have their labour and immigration documents processed.
This slog is a major drag on productivity that is entirely unneeded in the digital age.
Of course, officials noted as much when they launched the previous online work-permit system in July 2021 to much anticipation. But the system soon stopped accepting permit renewals, and it closed down completely in February 2022.
The failure was followed by widespread complaints about further delays in the permitting process.
The new effort must succeed. To make sure, officials should consider the lessons learned previously and iron out any challenges far in advance. Staff must be properly trained, and the system must be thoroughly tested before it launches.
Labour officials should also follow regional and international best practices. In the Cayman Islands, for instance, new work permits are processed prior to workers’ arrival and picked up upon entry. That practice would make a lot of sense in the VI too. Labour processing should also be more closely integrated with related immigration processes.
Digitisation of the work-permit process promises to bring big wins to the economy. Firms in financial services, tourism and other sectors will benefit greatly from replacing the antiquated paper-based system used now.
The plan to process job applications online will also provide an important boost for workers and employers alike, in addition to helping protect the labour rights of Virgin Islanders and belongers here and abroad.
Properly implementing the online system will take sustained time, money and effort, but in the long term it should save all of those things.
A successful launch will also go a long way to boosting public confidence in the broader e-government transition that has been much delayed despite years of promises from leaders.