ROAD TOWN, BVI:  British Virgin Islands Deputy Labour Commissioner, Decoy Mactavious has said that the Department is seeking ways to help its customers conveniently access the services provided at the Labour Department. “We are working so that our customers do not have to spend an entire day at our office to get their business completed,” Mactavious said.

Beginning March 6, the department began increasing the days for collection of work permit renewals to three days. Work permit renewals will now be received on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

'We will better serve our customers when we extend the time for work permit renewals. Each Monday and Tuesday the front office is flooded with persons picking up those permits,“ he said.

The deputy labour commissioner also said that as of April 1 the department will no longer accept the former legal-size forms or any variations of these forms for work permit applications. Only the letter size (8 ½ x 11) applications introduced at the beginning of this year, will be accepted.

Regarding the change in paper size, Mactavious said, “We have heard the complaints from a number of companies and we also looked at best practices in the Territory and we believe changing the size to the more convenient letter size paper will satisfy both our needs as well as the needs of our customers.”

The department has been using the letter size forms since the beginning of this year, however applications are being submitted on forms that have been photocopied, which will no longer meet the requirements.

All the information on the form remains the same and is formatted to fit the new size. In addition to the service changes an internal task force was put together to work on the backlog of work permit applications. The team works after hours and weekends, along with the labour commissioner and deputy, to process several hundred work permit applications.

The process is moving rapidly to meet a deadline of 15 March 2007, when the department anticipates all applications will become current and ready for collection. Mactavious noted that the department is steadily, working to meet the growing demands of the Territory’s working environment.