KINGSTON, Jamaica— The National Integrity Action (NIA) is calling on Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, to ensure equity and fairness in the recruitment of the 10,000 workers that cruise-line operators are currently trying to employ.

In a letter that was sent Monday and received by the media Tuesday afternoon, NIA’s Executive Director Trevor Munroe, implored Bartlett to invite members of the Parish Ministers’ Fraternal and the Parish Association of Justice of the Peace (JP) to make recommendations of suitable individuals.

According to Munroe, he is concerned about Bartlett’s suggestion that only Members of Parliament in the regions of the South Coast where the recruitment is being done, will be allowed to make recommendations.

“The concern is that we do everything in our power to ensure that equity, fairness and non-discrimination guide the recruiting of the workers and that partisan politics does not contaminate the process,” Munroe said in the letter.

“I am well aware that cruise line operators themselves set their criteria and do the recruitment, but you as Minister and we Jamaicans can and do make recommendations that often involve the Ministry of Labour and seek to ensure the principle of non-discrimination in our Constitution is observed.

“As such, it is understandable that you have asked all MP’s on the south coast to assist in recommending persons. Additionally, however, I would urge that you invite Parish Ministers’ Fraternal and the Parish Associations of JPs on the south coast to also recommend persons to the cruise operator recruiters.

“Such an invitation and engagement would introduce a non-political, non-governmental and civil society component to a recruitment process, which, regrettably, in Jamaica has been too often monopolised by politics,” Munroe continued, as he emphasised that Jamaican workers are celebrated and sought after worldwide.