Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Terry Lister wants to see "key" employees barred from staying in Bermuda for more than nine years.

This would mean that heads of companies, chief financial officers, actuaries, bankers and lawyers on work permits would have to leave the island by 2010 - and companies find replacements for these "key" employees.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette yesterday to clarify comments made by Premier Jennifer Smith that term limits on work permits were nine years and not six, Mr. Lister offered his opinion on how long key staff should be able to stay on in Bermuda.

Mr. Lister said: "Everybody has a six year work permit limit, which can be extended to nine years. For a real, real key man it can be to nine years or beyond. Personally I want it to be the key man to stay nine years and can't go beyond that, after that it is over."

The Minister has been in discussion with the business community about extending the term limits for key employees.

The row over the term limit on work permits has been raging since last week with business leaders wanting the rule abolished. The rule came into effect in 2001 and said that employees on work permits could not stay longer than six years, although exceptions would be made for key employees.

The definition of what a key employee is has been a sticking point with business groups lobbying Government to allow them to keep staff longer.

And yesterday Mr. Lister said that companies had to be "good corporate citizens" to be eligible to have "key" employee status.

David Ezekiel, head of the Association of Bermuda International Companies said yesterday: "I have to believe that the Minister was either misquoted or responded to a question without examining the implications of his statement. An inflexible nine year restriction would be impractical, unworkable and would have hugely negative implications for the international business sector.

"I will need confirmation or clarification of the ministers comments before commenting further. ABIC and other representative bodies on the Island are currently in discussions with the Minister on the issue of six year work permits, and I was not aware of any additional proposals."

Charles Gosling, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce also said that the Minister must have been misquoted as he and other business leaders had been in discussions about term limits on work permits.

He added: "We have been talking about people in key positions staying here over nine year period."

In yesterday's Royal Gazette, the Premier said: "Once again, before the election they (the UBP) are claiming without naming one example, that businesses are pulling out of Bermuda because of the six year - actually it's a nine year - cap on work permits."

This has added confusion as the term limit had been believed to be six years. But Mr. Lister clarified the matter and said that everybody on a work permit could have six years, and this could be extended to nine.

Martin Brewer, Chief Immigration Officer clarified the point even further: "If you look at Policy W8 of the Work Permit Policies on the Department of Immigration website www.immigration.gov.bm, you will see, under the section on `Term Limits on Work Permits', the following statements: `Unless the work permit holder is otherwise exempt, he or she will be limited to a maximum term of six years. This term limit is a reasonable compromise between the uneconomical short end and the socially unacceptable long end of the scale. There will be shorter-term limits and renewal beyond the general maximum number of six years is possible if the employer makes a strong enough case to justify it because of genuine and real need to renew the permit. Generally, no extensions will be permitted beyond a further three-year period bringing the maximum to nine years in total.'

Mr. Lister said that the term limits were brought in to solve the problems of guest workers becoming long-term residents.

And he said that he had just processed two piles of permanent residents certificates with people getting status who had come in on just six month permits more than a quarter of a century ago.

And he said that the renewal of people's work permits over and over again had in the past in certain instances led to Bermudians not getting the promotions they were entitled to.

"It (the term limits) are six years and can be extended to nine years for key people," he added to clarify the matter.

And he said one of the criteria for an employee being termed "key" was if companies were "good corporate citizens" - but he so far had only six applications from companies to establish themselves under this criteria.

He said that a need for these applications had been brought up at meetings with the business community, but he was surprised so few had applied for an exemption so far.