$250 million to start tourism workers’ pension fund in January, says Bartlett

Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett says $250 million will be used to ensure the start of the highly-anticipated Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme next month.

Bartlett says this forms part of the government’s effort to seed the fund to meet the deadline of a January 2020 start date for the pension scheme.

Bartlett, who made the announcement at a pension sensitisation session with hotel workers at Royalton Negril hotel today, said the ministry is well on its way to implementing the pension scheme and currently the Board of Trustees is in the process of procuring a fund manager and fund administrator.

“As soon as the fund manager has been appointed, 250 million will be disbursed to seed the fund so that if workers have contributed for only 5 years and reach their retirement age of 65 they will get a guaranteed minimum pension,” said Bartlett.

The Ministry of Tourism has been carrying out pension sensitisation sessions across the island to update tourism workers on the next steps of the pension scheme.

The scheme is designed to cover all workers ages 18-59 year in the tourism sector, whether permanent, contract or self-employed.

This includes hotel workers as well as persons employed in other tourism subsectors such as craft vendors, tour operators, red cap porters, contract carriage operators and workers at attractions.

“This landmark Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme is a carefully strategised arrangement that forms part of the Ministry’s overall human capital development strategy in the sector. The pension scheme is the final cap in that strategy to ensure a social security safety net for our workers at retirement,” said Bartlett.

Registration for the scheme is scheduled to begin in January.

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