KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett is, on Monday, February 3, to provide the industry with an update on the recently announced Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme.            

According to the Ministry of Tourism, the scheme is designed to cover all workers in the tourism sector, ages 18 to 59 years, whether permanent, contract or self-employed. Hotel workers as well as people employed in related industries such as craft vendors, tour operators, red cap porters, contract carriage operators and workers at attractions are also included in the pension scheme, the ministry said.

In December 2019, Bartlett announced that a board of trustees was in the process of finalising a fund manager and fund administrator for the pension scheme. Once the fund manager has been appointed, Bartlett said that $250 million would be disbursed to seed the fund so that workers, who may have only contributed for five years and reached their retirement age of 65, would still be guaranteed a minimum pension.