Gov’t moving to regularise Chinese workers at popular auto repair shop
Published:Friday | May 23, 2025 | 12:10 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Labour and Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr says his ministry is in the advanced stages of regulating work permits for the Chinese mechanics employed at WH Car Service as part of efforts to fast-track the reopening of the auto repair shop.
“We are facilitating as best as we can. Once the law is adhered to, we are continuing to do everything we can to ensure that they can reopen as quickly as possible,” he said.
The mechanic shop, located in Ferry Pen near the St Andrew-St Catherine border, was ordered closed after operating for just two months. Authorities shut it down following an investigation that revealed that several Chinese workers were either employed without permits or were in breach of the terms of their approved work status.
By the time of its closure, WH Car Service had already gained a strong customer base, praised for offering reliable and affordable service that many customers felt outperformed local alternatives.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Charles noted that many Jamaicans had been urging the Government to assist with the reopening.
“I’ve received letters; I’ve received calls from several persons who have indicated that the gap in that space in terms of the labour market is persuading them to encourage the Government to help these companies to get a space because of the affordability, reliability, and effectiveness of their service,” he said.
He confirmed that the Chinese operator of the shop has formally applied to regularise the workers’ permit status. However, the approval process is complex and involves coordination across several government ministries.
INTER-MINISTERIAL PROCESS
“It is an inter-ministerial process in terms of advancing the necessary assessments to determine if any sanctions or what sanctions [should apply] through the Ministry of National Security and also to identify and advance whatever issues in terms of work permits or immigration status will be required for them to be regularised,” he said.
Addressing public concerns about how the shop was able to open without the necessary permits, Charles rejected suggestions that the situation reflects a failure in the system.
“This is a scenario where we are actually seeing the effectiveness of a system responding to persons coming into Jamaica and attempting to operate without the necessary regulatory approvals,” he argued.
He added: “We have been able to balance the need to apply the law with the need for the service and to ensure that we have persons operating in adherence to our legal system while also giving Jamaicans opportunity to have access to a service that they clearly are desirous of supporting.”
Charles also shared that the work-permit system is currently being overhauled as part of a broader transformation initiative.
“We’re digitising [the process]. We’re now at the stage of doing user-acceptance testing to reiterate the process and to make sure that it’s actually working, and we are bringing in stakeholders to test, to confront it, to challenge it, and we’re moving apace,” he said.
He added that improvements are already being made even ahead of the digital rollout.
“ ... Any permit [application] that is [pending for] more than eight weeks is placed on a specialised list, and it is expedited so that persons will not have to have this prolonged wait,” he added.