Hospitality Association Welcomes New Population Laws

The new policy will make it easier for Guernsey employers to recruit worldwide for a variety of positions.

The States passed the proposals from Home Affairs last October and they've come in to force today (3).

They're designed to ensure Guernsey maintains a working population of around 31,000 and to make it easier to recruit from further afield, given the difficulties experienced following Brexit and the pandemic.

Home Affairs says: 'this has principally achieved through tying the Immigration Work Permit Policy to the Employment Permit Policy (EPP) for rest of the world, rather than only EU/EEA nationals.'

'Local businesses employing to over 250 roles listed in the EPP will have access to a global pool of workers from which to recruit, rather than being restricted to CTA and EU/EEA countries only.'

The new rules include scrapping the medium term employment licence while making the short term licence renewable on an annual basis.

Alan Sillett, the president of the Guernsey Hospitality Association, says changes to the short term licence will really help the sector:

"To recruit from places like Sri Lanka, India Bangladesh and Kenya for certain job roles has been difficult.

It's normally for heads of department or chefs, whereas now, with this new policy, we'll be able to recruit room attendants, kitchen porters, waiters and bar staff from these parts of the world for a three year term.

It will help us retain staff for longer."

Alan Sillett says the process is still quite bureaucratic but has been told it will be made more user friendly:

"That will improve apparently. It will be streamlined, so that immigration and population management applications will be done from one portal. Not yet, but I'm told by the end of the year, hopefully."

Home Affairs is in the process of arranging information sessions for employers and plans to announce dates shortly.