MONTEGO BAY, St James — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has rapped some employers who, in his view, have not done enough to ensure employees participate in the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme (TWPS).

“Several hotels that I have visited and attractions are not as energetic. I’m trying to find the right words here, because if I don’t find the right words I’m going to say some rough words,” the minister said with a laugh during the TWPS annual general meeting at Montego Bay Convention Centre last Friday.

“They’re not as energetic about getting you to join the pension plan because they have to put a matching contribution,” Bartlett added.

He said he will take steps to ensure those employers are nudged into playing their part.

“Let us make our employers mandatory champions. I will be advocating for stronger compliance mechanisms. The employers who are contributing are doing the right thing. We must bring all employers on board,” said the minister.

“It must become a standard of doing tourism business in Jamaica,” Bartlett insisted.

Established under the Tourism Workers Pension Act of 2019, the TWPS was launched with much fanfare in January 2022 to provide a social safety net for approximately 350,000 formal and informal workers within the sector. It has been billed as the first of its kind for tourism workers anywhere in the world.

It was seeded with a $1-billion grant from the Government of Jamaica to guarantee immediate accrued benefits for older qualifying members, including those as old as 59 at the time of its official launch and who would have had just six years before retirement.

The pension scheme has seen substantial growth, with more than 11,000 registered members and total fund contributions reaching the $6-billion mark, but Bartlett has a greater vision.

“We want you to enrol every worker, and match their contribution. It is the best investment that you will ever make in your business,” he told employers whose employees remain uncertain about joining.

“Here is my charge for the next chapter… let us move from 11,000 to 50,000 members by 2028,” he challenged.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett addressing last Friday’s annual general meeting of the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme at Montego Bay Convention Centre.

The minister reminded his audience about his long-term goal for the TWPS which, he reiterated, has been hailed internationally for what it represents.

“The target is not 11,000. The target is every tourism worker in Jamaica. Our tourism sector employs 175,000 Jamaicans directly and generates indirect employment of another 350,000. We must reach them all. From the red cap porter to the Airbnb host, from the jet ski operator to the higglers in the craft market,” Bartlett declared.

He also urged the TWPS leadership to play its part in reaching workers connected to the sector.

“We must go into the informal sector, go to Negril, go to Portland, go to the south coast. Leave no tourism worker behind; partner with us,” he appealed.

“Get Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) involved too, and the tourist board and TEF [Tourism Enhancement Fund], to make pension enrolment a condition of operation,” he added.

Bartlett took the call further, insisting that different groups could be targeted as part of the push.

“There are some people who are knocking on the door to join this scheme — like the airport security corps knocking on the door — and I say, ‘Let’s look at them,’ because if their income is more than 30 per cent derived from tourism activities, then they can qualify to be members,” he said.

“Some of you who work in the hotel but don’t feel that you are part of this, I want you to change your views. Those of you who are at the airport, even the concessionaires, we need to look at that because the concessionaires are part of the service corps. They are, in fact, the first point of contact or among the first points of contact,” he added.

Bartlett also pointed to self-employed individuals in the sector as potential participants in the TWPS.

“The JUTA and JCAL, and the taxi drivers who carry tourists and whose job essentially revolves around that, we want to provide a scope for them. The self-employed, the pudding man, we want to prepare a place for the pudding man so he can, as a self-employed person who is selling to tourists, become part of the pension, and he will contribute on a different basis than which the worker in the hotel at the attractions and so on contributes,” he added.