A move to rectify a longstanding legislative mistake by validating labour inspections dating back 15 years was pushed through the House of Assembly last week.
Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley told the House that the bill was needed to regularise inspections carried out since the passage of the 2010 Labour Code.
“Lack of regulations at that time prevented a minister from officially appointing labour inspectors,” Mr. Wheatley said while explaining the Labour Code (Validation of Labour Inspections) Bill, 2025, on July 3. “I would imagine if we do not validate them, then those acts were not valid. And any inspections which were done before were not valid. And I’m sure that would have implications for us if those inspections indeed were not valid.”
He added that the bill would mean all such inspections are now retrospectively regularised.
The premier added that the situation was not “ideal.”
“What’s done is done,” he added. “We are here now and it’s important that we … put a process in place to ensure that these challenges are not repeated.”
‘We have to do better’
Opposition Myron Walwyn criticised the delay in taking the action.
“This substantive legislation was passed in 2010. We are now in 2025 — 15 years later, spanning two administrations — and we have not done the very things that we ourselves in this House asked to be done,” he said. “And we have to get away from that practice. We have to do better.”
He added that such legislative mistakes put taxpayers’ money at risk.
“If something had happened and somebody aggrieved took the government to court, the government would not have a leg to stand on,” he said. “And so we are putting the taxpayers’ money at risk because we are not doing the things that we are supposed to do.”
‘Pig in a bag’
Mr. Walwyn also used the debate to complain about a new requirement for employers to pay for work permits before new employees arrive in the territory.
“Businesses are already having a difficult time even staying afloat,” he said. “Why would you put that additional burden of paying for new work permits on employers?”
The opposition leader said the system forces businesses to hire blind.
“The law says you cannot look for employment while on the island,” he said. “So, ostensibly, employers are buying a pig in a bag. You don’t know what you are getting. You put in a work permit, the person says they can do, and when they come half the time they can’t do.”
He added that he has personal experience of such situations.
“I had a lady — I was looking for a baker many years ago — she come here, she couldn’t even knead flour,” he said. “But based on what the government has done now, I would have had to pay for the work permit for that lady to come here, and then when time come I would have had to get rid of her. How am I going to get that money back?”
Mr. Walwyn suggested workers should have to pay for their own permit.
Online system
Also during the debate, Financial Services and Economic Development Junior Minister Lorna Smith praised the government’s online Labour Management System.
“It’s a modern system that takes us away from work permits taking months and years to being approved in weeks,” she said.
The Labour Code (Validation of Labour Inspections) Bill, 2025, passed without amendments.