London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

Locals should lose their jobs last if lay-offs are happening - Wheatley

Locals should lose their jobs last if lay-offs are happening - Wheatley

Employers in the British Virgin Islands are being told that if the need arises to lay-off staff to keep their businesses afloat during the COVID-19 crisis, BVIslanders and Belongers should be last to lose their jobs.

That advice is coming from Labour Minister Vincent Wheatley who was speaking in the House of Assembly on Monday, June 8.

His comments were made against the backdrop that he has received multiple complaints indicating that locals were being targeted when lay-offs are being done.

He said: “[There are] some really good employers in this country who do well by their staff. They’re offering them zero-interest loans [and] shopping vouchers. But then it got a next set who are using this COVID-19 to abuse their workers. And, sometimes they are choosing the Belongers first to abuse!

“I remember years ago when you see a job advertising in the paper you see ‘BVIslander’ and ‘Belonger’ first or preferred. Now, they turn that around. When they come to the abuse of people, its BVIslanders and Belongers first.”

He said the proper thing for employers to do is to have a staff meeting and inform their employees of the decisions of the company.

“We expect you to not lay off Belongers and BVIslanders first. We expect you to lay them off last,” Wheatley stated, adding that the employers in questions are creating “excuses” to justify their actions.


Responding to complaint in the workplace

Wheatley said he decided to respond to complaints by showing up at a particular workplace last Thursday.

He said that upon his arrival, he was ‘appalled’ by what he saw. Wheatley said he witnessed employees who were seeking some ‘documentation’ being barred from entering the establishment in question.

The minister did not go into detail but said he tried to seek an audience with the manager of the company but was met with ‘disrespect’ instead.

“I called, the manager didn’t answer the phone. I WhatsApp, the manager, didn’t return the WhatsApp,” Wheatley recalled.

He said he visited the establishment with a team from the Labour Department, including the Labour Commissioner, and asked to see the manager.

The minister said they waited for some time but eventually left without seeing the manager who was inside the building.

“I said: ‘this is something else’ - the level of disrespect! But you cannot be here as an investor and think you can do as you want because we need you and we won’t survive without your presence. I find that totally, totally unacceptable. I mean if you can disrespect me as a minister of government, an elected representative, I could imagine the poor employees what they going through. And I was so glad I went because you hear stories all the time,” Wheatley stated.

He further assured the House of Assembly that he will be making follow-ups.

“I could never dreamed that this could happen in my BVI. This was an eye-opener for me and I have to go and really rethink how we go about doing business in this country,” he stated.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×