LABOUR Minister Shahine Robinson says although it is understandable that employers in the United States and Jamaican workers are anxious to commence contracts under what is commonly known as the “farm work programme”, patience with the petition process must be exercised as this is necessary to protect both parties.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Friday following a meeting with United States Ambassador to Jamaica Luis G Moreno and other officials of the embassy, at the ministry in downtown Kingston, Robinson noted that complaints about the waiting period are related to the processing of petitions from the employers and not the visas for prospective employees.

“It’s a big machinery with several parts, and it largely depends on the petition — when they send off to say they need 500 workers how quickly they do it and how timely they are in their applications,” Robinson pointed out.

Employers have to justify to the State Department the necessity of using overseas workers. “There is a whole process of investigation to underscore that justification. They have to wait for that in order to process visas here; it’s all a necessary part of the process,” the labour minister said.

As of February 2016, seasonal agricultural workers must have an H-2A or temporary work visa to secure employment in the US under the farm work programme.

The new requirement all applies to nationals from countries that were previously exempt from the visa requirement, and was done to standardise the H-2A process.

“It’s a programme that has been beneficial to both countries… workers were not used to having to apply for visas. They (the US) say that that was a loophole and they corrected it by now asking our workers to apply for visas. They are cognisant of the time constraints and they try to have a quick turnover for the application and issuing of the visas so that the workers can travel, said Robinson.

Since January this year, 611 Jamaicans have been sent to the United Sates to take up jobs under the overseas employment programme.

The parties also discussed other matters of national importance to both countries, including the Jamaica/US Work-Study programme; child Labour and human trafficking; the National Workplace Policy on HIV and AIDS and the Occupational Safety and Health Bill, which has long languished in the draft stage and which the new Government has promised to take through Parliament during this fiscal year. “It was a very good meeting, and we committed to maybe doing them on a quarterly basis,” Robinson remarked.

In addition to the minister and the ambassador, the meeting involved Permanent Secretary Colette Roberts Risden and other officials of the ministry; deputy chief of mission Elizabeth Martinez; Consul General Michael Schimmel; and Counsellor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy Joshua Polacheck.