Plan to Drop Work Permits

You have two days left to respond to the DfE’s consultation into proposals that would see work permits ditched as part of the gov’s plan to grow the population to 100,000.

A consultation document and survey can be found here.

In November last year, Tynwald approved the Economic Strategy, which including a plans to ‘develop the infrastructure and services for our community to plan for an estimated population of 100,000 by 2037’.

Now, the DfE is asking islanders and businesses for their views on ditching the work permit system as a way to do this.

It said: ‘The proposals would temporarily remove the need for work permits to apply across all sectors and all occupations, enabling the department to provide unconditional five year confidence to potential workers looking to migrate to the island, that they and their family will be able to take up employment and move roles without conditions or subsequent work permit applications.’

The department said that it would retain the Control of Employment Act, but would simply ‘turn it off’, while retaining the ability to turn them back on should there be a ‘significant shift in the economic climate’ though some commentators online have said that if the change is made, the genie will be out of the bottle.