From November 27-29, 2017 Jamaica hosted the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Conference on Jobs and Inclusive Growth at the Montego Bay Conference Centre.

The prime minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, gave the keynote address to a receptive audience of close to 1,500 participants. There were some stimulating and thought-provoking speakers, such as then UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai who gave the welcoming remarks.

The issue that sticks out most in the mind is one raised by our Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett, who gave the opening speech. The Jamaican tourism sector is skewed so that almost 80 per cent of the benefits or earnings go to the 20 per cent at the top, which are the large accommodations, with only about 20 per cent going to the 80 per cent at the bottom, the small and informal service providers in the sector.

Although he didn’t say it then, the minister may have had on his mind the fact that tourism workers are paid such low wages, a month’s salary could not pay for one room for one night’s stay in the resort where they toil and give of their labour. This is an untenable situation that feeds into tourist harassment and hustling in resort towns.

At a recent post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House, Bartlett was his usual upbeat self, announcing that the country earned US$1.27 billion from the tourism industry in the first three months of 2024. The revenue, he said, came from 1.34 million visitors to the island between January and March. What was different on this occasion was Minister Bartlett’s clear indication that workers must, to a greater degree, benefit from the booming tourism industry.

A story titled ‘Bartlett wants higher wages for tourism workers’ in the
Jamaica Observer newspaper in the May 2, 2024 edition carried his comments: “Where tourism is going, then, is to create the transition from the low wage characterisation that we know of, and that transition will happen by labour market arrangements we are putting in place. It is very, very important to understand that it is not a legislative arrangement.”

Changing labour market dynamics is not just a tourism concern. In its Wednesday, November 8, 2023 front page story, the Business Observer reported Andrew Mahfood of Wisynco Group, a company presently seeking to add 400 new jobs to meet expanding demand, as saying, “I think one of the things we need to look on as a country, as businesses expand in all areas, we need more talent to work in those industries, and if it is not available locally, we need to look within and outside the region to source talent or you will see businesses starting to stall.”

Former president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, Howard Mitchell, in an address at Campion College’s Annual Samuel Carter Lecture, reacted with cynicism to the call by some private sector interests to import skilled labour. The January 16, 2024 edition of The Gleaner reported him as saying, “If you think you are going to get anybody from anywhere, except Haiti, and pay them $400 an hour, I have news for you.”

One cannot divorce the rising problem of the working poor from the country’s dismally low labour productivity. Writing in The Gleaner’s April 9, 2018 edition under the headline ‘Productivity improvement necessary for growth’, the late and then executive director of the Jamaica Productivity Centre, Dr Charles Douglas, had this to say, “Examining the labour productivity performance of the Jamaican economy, the data reveals that from 1951 to 1975 labour productivity growth averaged an impressive 5.3 per cent annually. In contrast, for the next 42 years (1976 to 2017), average labour productivity growth was negative 0.61 per cent annually.”

Jamaica is notorious for hoards of cheap, unskilled labourers using outdated processes and ageing technology. That spells low productivity. With more and more Jamaican companies expanding to regional markets on their way to going global, that’s beginning to change. Increasingly, we hear of companies, in manufacturing and service industries, upgrading processes and increasing their capital budgets to invest in the latest technologies. The pendulum has swung to the other side. Alas, there is the spectre of 17th century workers in 21st century work environments. The solution is not to double the wages of existing workers to get the same level of output. That too spells low productivity.

The situation begs the question: Wither the HEART/NSTA Trust? The agency was established in 1982 by then Prime Minister Edward Seaga and enjoys two per cent deducted from the nation’s payrolls at source to, as its vision statement proclaims, develop a globally competitive workforce impacting nation-building through human capital development. One suspects that the concept of vocational education, within which HEART/NSTA Trust and its training arm, Vocational Training Development Institute, had their genesis is out of sync with today’s reality of globally certified and trained workers. It, therefore, comes as good news that the organisation has launched an initiative in which the manufacturing sector will have greater input in shaping the curriculum to bring the training in line with current and future needs.

There must be a total shift in manpower training and remuneration. Until diploma and certificate holders from tertiary educational institutions see shop floor and entry-level jobs as a meaningful start to their careers, we are doomed to be a cheap labour, low productivity country with ever-worsening trade deficit.

Dr Henley Morgan is founder and executive chairman of the Trench Town-based Social Enterprise, Agency for Inner-city Renewal and author of My Trench Town Journey — Lessons in Social Entrepreneurship and Community Transformation for Policy Makers, Development Leaders, and Practitioners. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or hmorgan@cwjamaica.com.