Ross Le Brun is preparing a requete calling for a register of businesses and workers coming to the island, amid concerns that some are failing to meet the same obligations as local employers.
He said the current system left authorities unaware of who was working in Guernsey, how long they were staying and whether they should be paying social security contributions.
‘We’ve got an open door,’ he said.
‘We’ve got no idea who’s here, how much they’re earning, and whether they should be registered with Social Security or not. We don’t know who’s here to check, and it relies on people phoning up the inspectors and saying that there’s certain staff working on certain sites.’
Deputy Le Brun said some visiting firms were required to register locally for social security purposes, while others could be covered by a certificate of continuing liability – allowing contributions to be paid in their home jurisdiction.
But without a register of visiting businesses, he questioned how authorities could establish whether the correct arrangements were in place.
‘It’s a problem,’ he said.
‘There have been people taken to petty debts. Admittedly, it’s probably low millions, but it could be into the millions that the island is losing.’
Beyond the financial implications, he said the situation created an unfair playing field for local employers.
‘If I’m doing a job and I’m employing people, they’d expect me to be signed up to Social Security and they’ll chase me for that and fine me for it,’ he said.
‘But the UK firms – it’s just an open door.’
Having previously owned a labour hire company himself, Deputy Le Brun said he had been raising concerns about the issue for years.
He recalled meeting with Social Security officials and providing details of companies operating locally who were unknown to the authorities.
‘They were working on relatively large jobs, and had been working here months before Social Security inspectors got there,’ he said.
‘It just shows there’s a big loophole, and it needs to be sorted.’
His proposed requete is still in the very early stages, he said, with no signatures yet sought and no formal submission made. He plans to progress it once the current series of States debates has concluded.
‘I’m trying to give it its best chance of success by getting a quiet period where it can go in, and it can have more focus,’ he said.
‘There is an urgent need to put something like this in place. Although it’s a relatively small amount of money being lost, it’s the unfairness of it – that we would chase locals up but we’ve got no system in place to make sure that non-local firms are having to abide by the same rules.’