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~ Normal opening hours resume ~
PHILIPSBURG--The Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA has engaged in a re-writing of its procedures to facilitate the manual intake of employment permit requests at the Department of Labour Affairs.
The ministry said this was being done due to "the continued ICT [Information Communications Technology – Ed.] challenges experienced at the department. The servers at the department went down about a month ago due to a power surge.
The Department of Labour Affairs will start with the manual intake of employment permit applications as of Monday, August 18, but only those permits up for renewal, it was stated in a press release issued by the Cabinet of Labour Minister Cornelius de Weever.
Vacancy registrations, unemployment registrations and labour registrations also will be offered and rendered by the department manually. "At this time, no first time employment permit applications will be accepted, again due to the legislative restrictions," the release stated.
The ministry said the processing of employment permits was anchored in an ordinance with strict legislative requirements, checks and balances.
The Ministry apologised for the inconvenience this had caused, but indicated that it was "out of its immediate control."
"We implore the customers for some additional patience, as the process is a manual one." The department will revert to its normal public hours from 8:30am to 3:30pm.
