A bill setting minimum percentages of local employees and management in all companies hired by the V.I. government got favorable testimony as to its intent, but there remained questions about its specifics, practicality and its constitutionality during committee hearings Friday. The Senate Labor and Agriculture Committee debated the bill for several hours, getting testimony from the Department of Labor, labor unions, the two territorial chambers of commerce and others before adjourning without a vote.
The bill requires that at least 50 percent of management and 60 percent of rank-and-file employees be native or must have resided in the territory for at least six months. An amendment was circulated proposing to increase the quota to 80 percent of rank-and-file employees.
Unions supported the bill, urging the quota be set higher.
"What we have seen here in the Virgin Islands is that the top managerial slots or positions are given to off-island workers whereas our Virgin Islanders are given jobs in the area of custodial and janitorial services," said Ira Hobson, president of United Steel Works Local 8248 in Christiansted, supporting the bill. "Are they saying the people of the Virgin Islands are not qualified to hold managerial positions?"
Michael Dembeck, director of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, said the spirit of the bill was laudable, but raised questions about how it might apply to medical contractors at the territory’s hospitals, engineering companies working on the Water and Power Authority’s waste-heat generator and other technical contractors that may not be able to find qualified specialists among the small local population.
"We believe the government of the Virgin Islands should focus on the word ‘qualified’ rather than the word ‘quota,’" he said.
Property and Procurement Commissioner Lynn Millin-Maduro and Labor Commissioner Albert Bryan both raised concerns that the bill needs much more detail to be workable. "What if it is an off-island contractor doing design or technical work that is not being done here and the work is being done entirely off-island?" Maduro said. "Do we require them to get a V.I. license and establish a physical presence here?"
A system of quotas on construction work, which is physically being done in the territory, might be more workable, she said.
Bryan said the quotas were not so stringent as to be unreasonable, but "this does little to really change the problem which is really is the private sector. And it asks a lot but with no resources."
Maduro and Assistant Attorney General Elliot Davis said it might raise constitutional problems by treating one group of U.S. citizens differently from others.
"It could be subject to constitutional challenge," Davis said. "And if we were to change the bill and be more specific about the preferences which already exist in the code, you might very well draw attention to existing provisions which would also be subject to constitutional challenge."
Sen. Usie Richards, the committee chairman, adjourned the meeting without a vote, scheduling continued hearings on the bill for Feb. 26.
Present were Richards, Sens. Craig Barshinger, Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Shawn-Michael Malone, Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Nereida "Nellie" O’Reilly and Sammuel Sanes.
