MARLON PENN ACCUSED OF HYPOCRISY OVER YOUTH EMPLOYMENT REMARKS

Opposition Leader Marlon Penn responded to a young woman who said he shut her out when she asked for help finding work.

A young woman accused Opposition Leader Marlon Penn of hypocrisy after he raised concerns about young Virgin Islanders struggling to find work. Sharing a BVI Platinum News report on his remarks, she said the experience Penn described was familiar to her because she remembered turning to him for help.

“I remember asking you for help and shut me out too. So don’t be a hypocrite now. All now you have me on seen,” she wrote on Facebook. “But thank God for the boss I have today for giving me a chance.”

Penn responded in the comments, saying he remembered their conversations differently. He said he had taken note of her request and tried to help her find work when positions became available at Long Bay Beach Resort.

“While I respectfully disagree with your sentiments and recollection of the circumstances, I respect your perspective,” Penn wrote. “As I recall, we had several conversations regarding your particular situation.”

Of the vacancies at Long Bay, he said, “I personally advocated on your behalf in an effort to assist.” He added that he had experienced her hospitality firsthand and praised the customer service she provided in her current job. His reply did not say whether he had answered the particular message she referred to in her post.

The BVI Platinum News report that prompted the exchange concerned young Virgin Islanders who, according to Penn, want to work but struggle to secure even an interview. In his Facebook reply to the woman, Penn said her experience spoke to a wider concern about how young people find employment in the Territory.

“The system must work for our people, and access to employment opportunities should never be dependent on knowing me or having to approach any politician,” he wrote in that reply.

In the same reply, Penn called for the return of initiatives such as the Youth Employment Services (YES) Programme, which he said had helped young Virgin Islanders prepare for work and connected them with employers. He said the current administration had discontinued the programme.

Cindy Rosan, who is running as an independent at-large candidate in the next general election, challenged Penn’s response in the same thread.  She acknowledged that helping someone find a job could be commendable, but questioned what recourse other applicants had when employers overlooked them.

“Training a young person for a position means very little if the doors remain closed when they are qualified,” Rosan wrote.

Rosan called for stronger protections for Virgin Islanders seeking work and closer scrutiny of employers’ hiring practices. She also questioned whether elected representatives were doing enough to press the Labour Department on enforcement.

“Where is the pressure on the Labour Department to enforce existing legislation and hold employers accountable when they fall short?” she asked.

Rosan also took issue with the focus on which government had introduced a programme and which had ended it. She said each administration should answer for its own decisions, including employment practices it allows to continue. On the question of whether a job seeker should have to approach an elected official in the first place, her position echoed Penn’s.

“Our young people should not have to find a politician to find an opportunity,” she wrote.