LABOUR Minister Derrick Kellier says the ministry’s liaison offices will soon be monitoring Jamaican workers who are recruited by private agencies to work in North America.

Kellier made the announcement in response to questions raised by Opposition spokesman on Labour, Ruddy Spencer, about the lack of support for Jamaican workers in North America who were recruited outside of the ministry’s overseas employment recruitment programme.

Spencer raised the issue as he responded to Kellier’s opening statement in the debate on bills amending the National Minimum Wage Act and the Employment Agencies Regulation Act of 1957, to increase fines for breaches of both Acts, in the House of Representatives on February 6.

Kellier said that at the recent meeting of the Regional Labour Board in Montego Bay, it was agreed that the ministry’s liaison offices in North America would expand coverage to include Jamaican workers employed outside of the ministry’s recruitment system.

“These agencies have no way of monitoring the persons they recruit for overseas jobs but, as government, we have a duty to all Jamaicans and we will be implementing it very shortly,” the minister said.

He said that the amendments were vital for the protection of job seekers, to curtail dishonesty in the practice of work placements for a fee, and necessary to ensure observance of the rule of law governing the activities of employment agencies.

He pointed out that the objective of the Employment Agencies Regulation Act of 1957 is to regulate the operations of employment agencies and to also provide for the regulation and licensing of private employment agencies.

In response to another criticism made by Spencer, about the need to beef up the ministry’s inspectorate, Kellier said the ministry had 18 inspectors islandwide – at least one in each parish.

But he promised that “we will examine it to see if increased activities will need added numbers”.

The minister said that there are currently 73 agencies registered with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. “These agencies have valid licences to operate as private employment agencies and to provide local and overseas job placement services,” he said.

He said that one of the reasons these private employment agencies were exploiting people with regularity was because the fines for breaches of the Act were far two low to be effective deterrents to these malpractices.

Kellier also noted that another major reason for amending the Act was to ensure that employment agencies did not become an avenue for human trafficking. He added that the integrity of the Government-administered Overseas Employment Programme could be placed under threat from the activities of private employment agencies.