Government should consider suspending the work permit term limit policy because it's damaging Bermuda's economy says Ariel Re boss Don Kramer.

Mr. Kramer, who is heading up Bermuda First, a body set up by Government to devise strategies to counter the recession, said the Island was losing valuable experience and spending power.

He said: "I think it might be useful to consider suspending term limits. Work permits always had an expiration date.

"Having this six-year absolute limit created problems for a couple of sectors we are starting to see it.

"Right now we ought to consider the value of employees working here and the multiplier effect they bring to the economy. I think we ought to temporarily suspend it until the economy improves."

For several reasons he said the number of guest workers will start to decline.

"It will affect the economy adversely because they bring in revenue whether it's buying food or housing or using local services."

Mr. Kramer said statistics gathered for Bermuda First a panel of business heads and other opinion leaders had revealed interesting aspects about the economic impact of workers.

He said on average, each worker spent 7/10ths of their income which had a multiplier effect throughout the economy.

"Each person working generates both income and demand."

Government have said the term limit policy was designed to avoid creating new tranches of long-term residents rather than as a policy to specifically open up jobs for Bermudians.

But Mr. Kramer said: "The concept, when it was originally put in, was within six years you ought to train a Bermudian to take that job.

"That you should be able to train a Bermudian to be an actuary, an accountant and analyst. In large measure that has happened.

"One of the greatest strengths of Bermuda right now is the density of talent in the financial services industry. We are trying to keep that talent engaged.

Bermudians are rising to it and moving up the ladder, said Mr. Kramer. "They are not just in clerical jobs but very high paying high executive positions. That has worked."

But he said there was a disparity in where Bermudians worked, that term limits were hurting a few sectors.

Where international business was now 59 percent Bermudian staffed, he said: "If you look at local utilities, employment is 90 percent Bermudian, it's 42 percent in the restaurant sector.

"In restaurants, for example, you really don't have a large cadre of Bermudians wanting those jobs.

"And yet they are not considered by any definition an essential job. Is a waiter, pot washer or cook an essential job? Yes and no. Are there Bermudians waiting in the wings to take those jobs?

"The answer is no. You have to consider the term limits in those places.

"An example at Pink Beach there was a maître d' named Micky, I think he was from Sri Lanka.

"He was delightful, knew all the clients. I would come in and he would say 'Hello Mr. Kramer I have your favourite table, etc'.

"He had to leave the Island, his term was up. He's now in Canada. They replaced him, not with a Bermudian but with a Sri Lankan.

"I walk in now and he says 'Good evening sir, can I help you?' They have lost something."

Mr. Kramer, an American who has lived in Bermuda for 16 years, conceded there was anti-foreigner feeling but he said people needed to see the other side of the coin.

"Within the broader mix of population there was a time when they felt that the guest workers were using up the community oxygen, they were inflating housing, causing rising prices, creating traffic and filling the schools etc.

"That created some local resentment to guest workers.

"But we are coming to the view now that we live in an integrated economy — it is all part and parcel of it — if you take these people out that the economy will suffer.

"There are sectors in the economy that have completely Bermudianised, if you will, in terms of employment and it hasn't always been successful.

"Public education certainly would be one. It needs work."