Skilled Worker Shortage Needs to Be Discussed at Roofing Day

RCS Influencer Greta Bajrami says that we need a legal pathway to recruit workers from other countries.  

When asked what I want Washington to pay attention to this year in Roofing Day in D.C. 2021, the answer is easy for me. I want and demand a pathway for roofing company owners to recruit roofing skilled employees (legally) from other countries. 

Let’s face it, your children, cousins, brothers and sisters probably don’t want to become roofers, sure they may want to be the salesperson, the manager, but not the roofer on the roof. Why? Well, because Gen Z’s love being in a service provider role, not laborer. 

This means we are and will continue to see a huge decline in skilled workers like roofers. There will be less and less people for the job each year. Instead of panicking when the positions are left open, or clients are demanding their money back, I say we face it and fix the problem now.  

Now is the time to address and create legal pathways to recruit roofing workers from other countries. Let’s set up visa programs where we can create partnerships with foreign schools, and countries to hire on employment contracts seasonal skilled employees. 

The J-1 visa program does currently exist, and restaurant owners do a great job of using this pathway to recruit staff each year from overseas for their busy seasons, especially the more remote restaurants and resort that may have a hard time hiring otherwise. 

I guess you can say that the J-1 visa program exists. The process for a roofing company owner is in place through J-1, but the chances of an application being granted are less than 10%. Roofing companies must prove beyond a doubt that the role was not filled, and even then, the chances for acceptance are extremely low due to all the requirements and paperwork is needed. 

Washington D.C, please wake up and create a legal way to recruit workers from other countries. Notice, I keep saying the word legal, but I do so intentionally, because I want to make it clear that whenever you fail to create a legal pathway, an illegal one is born. We very much continue to have illegal immigrants in construction that themselves don’t like to be in that position due to many disadvantages they face through loss of benefits. The same disadvantage goes for employers who may be doing less of something or subcontracting out a project to make new norms with the legal and illegal employment within roofing.  

That’s all I want. Who can make it happen? Who can create a pathway to recruit roofers from around the world? 

Greta Bajrami is the founder of Golden Group Roofing. See her full bio here.