MONTEGO BAY, St James — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett announced yesterday that Government has given approval for the establishment of a pension plan for all categories of tourism workers.

The minister said with Cabinet granting approval on Monday, the matter will now be taken to Parliament to enact legislation for the pension plan.

The tourism minister was addressing tourism workers at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay before greeting the first arrivals — Celeene and Wayne Rodriquez — for the winter tourism season.

“The Cabinet has also given us approval to have an amendment to the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) to enable it to provide the seeding money for the fund of $1 billion for the pension fund,” Bartlett said ysterday.

“… [The TEF] board has already given its approval for the withdrawal, pending the change of legislation and the fiscal arrangements to enable the act to operate in the kind of space that is required is a matter of course,” the tourism minister said.

Bartlett said former tourism minister, Dr Wykeham McNeill, continued the work to push the pension plan he started during the two last years of the Jamaica Labour Party Administration of 2007 – 2011.

“I started the work and during the two years that ensued before I went on a sabbatical I laid the ground work for it. The good news is that during the period that I was on a sabbatical the work continued. And the work has gotten to the stage where in this my second incarnation and it is poetic justice that it should happen,” Bartlett said.

Meanwhile, bemoaning that seasonality robs workers in the sector of “good jobs”, the tourism minister argued that the establishment of the pension fund will also set the stage for the elimination of seasonality.

“What we are doing by growing the industry is to get it to four million next year [and] even the flow of visitors throughout the year. The winter now is big, the summer is big, and the the fall months I must tell you have been showing growth…,” Bartlett said.

“This is the last year that we are celebrating the start of a winter season; we are finished with celebrating winter season because every season is one season now and Jamaica is one strong tourism destination and we are moving to secure the tenure and ensure the security of the workers of this great industry,” said the minister.