Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton yesterday announced more job categories will be allowed exemptions from work permit term limits.

In 2001 Government introduced six-year work permit limits for most people while key employees were barred from staying in Bermuda for more than nine years.

Previous Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Terry Lister had taken a hard line, raising the spectre that heads of companies, chief financial officers, actuaries, bankers and lawyers on work permits would have to leave the Island by 2010.

Certain job categories had been exempted at the outset because of the scarcity of Bermudians applying for those jobs.

However yesterday Mr. Horton announced further jobs would be added to the list after consultation with industry stakeholders.

Chamber of Commerce president Charles Gosling welcomed the move and said it showed what business could achieve through collective lobbying of a Government willing to listen.

Mr. Horton emphasised Government took great pains to ensure identifying such categories would not impede the aspirations of Bermudians to achieve the highest levels of success.

“We stressed - and communicated unequivocally - that future decisions to exempt key persons from term limits would always take that consideration into account.”

He said any business can still apply for exemptions from term limits for persons outside those categories if they are able meet the criteria identified where the business has a significant physical presence in Bermuda.

“However, the addition of these categories to the relevant work permit policies will provide comfort to businesses that wish to assure current and prospective employees, who fall in the above categories, that they will not be asked to leave after six years, thus ensuring that businesses will not be seriously injured to the detriment of the interests of Bermuda and Bermudians.”

Mr. Horton said there is a possibility that other categories of key persons will be added to the list.

“The Department of Immigration is awaiting submissions from a few more stakeholder groups.”

Once a final list of key person categories has been produced and agreed with the stakeholder groups, the amended policies will be published on the Department of Immigration website.

Mr. Gosling (pictured) said: “I think this is a great step forward. It eases a lot concern out there - not only from employers but also employees that Government has shown itself, as Premier Scott said when he became Premier and I believe it was echoed by Minister Horton, that they are not going to do anything which will in any way jeopardise the well-being of the international business sector.”