Labour Ministry Grants 214 Work Permit Exemptions for Cricket World Cup

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has processed some 214 work permit exemptions for foreign nationals engaged in activities related to Jamaica’s preparation for the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007.
The bulk of exemptions are for persons involved in work on the Sabina Park and Trelawny Multipurpose Stadium projects and those engaged in planning and executing the event including staff/advisors and officials of ICC CWC 2007 Inc., West Indies Cricket Board, ICC Development (International Limited), and Global Cricket Corporation (GCC); umpires and match referees; and official broadcasters and media workers accredited by the ICC CWC.
Acting Director of the Work Permit Unit in the Ministry, Joan Archer, told JIS News that work permit exemptions were processed in seven days, as stipulated in Section 14 of the ICC CWC West Indies 2007 Bill, otherwise referred to as the Sunset legislation. “In instances where all the requirements are met and all the documents that are required are submitted, we have been meeting that deadline,” she informed.
Outlining the process, Ms. Archer said the Jamaica Local Organizing Committee (LOC) was required to send a written request to the Ministry along with a non-refundable processing fee of $1,000, relevant data on the person for whom the exemption was being sought such as name and passport number, and once the information was received and processed, a letter of exemption was issued.
Meanwhile, she said that the unit was prepared to handle any increase in requests for work permit exemptions as the mega event neared.
“Whatever the situation, the unit should be able to cope in granting the exemptions to these persons as quickly as the requests come in,” Ms. Archer stated.
She told JIS News that while the unit had not increased its staff capacity, “what we did was to sensitize the staff to the urgency of how we treat with these documents and (for them) to quickly move these applications along so that they will fall within the stipulated deadline”. Ms. Archer assured that, “all the Ministry can do to facilitate the whole process we will do so, to facilitate the Cricket World Cup”.