Charles Jr: Ministry to provide farm work programme recommendations soon

WESTERN BUREAU:

LABOUR AND Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr says that his ministry will soon compile and release a full set of recommendations geared at benefiting employees of the Canadian farm work programme, following his recent fact-finding mission to ascertain workers’ living and working conditions in that country.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday following his keynote address at the 31st meeting of the Heads of CARICOM Social Security Organisations, held at the Hilton Rose Hall hotel in Montego Bay, St James, Charles said that discussions on the matter would continue at a meeting he is scheduled to attend in Trinidad this coming week.

“We are going to have a comprehensive set of recommendations and findings put out in short order, but I can tell you that the trip [to Canada] was very successful,” he said.

“The trip offered me an opportunity to have face-to-face meetings and direct observation of what our farm workers’ living and working conditions are … I spoke to farm workers, employers, and government officials, and the findings of the fact-finding commission that went to Canada some time ago were reaffirmed,” said Charles.

“The trip was also an opportunity for us to meet with government officials on critical issues relating to the systems, the legislations, and the mechanisms that really operate the farm work programme. We have started those discussions, and we will continue those discussions in Trinidad next week, where we have an annual meeting around the terms and conditions of agreement,” Charles added.

During his visit to Canada late last month, Charles visited at least three farms aligned to the farm work programme and met with 21 employers and employer representatives, who employ a combined 930 Jamaican workers across the Simcoe and Tillsonburg areas.

Several concerns have been raised in recent months about the conditions of the Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Programme, including reports of worker exploitation, excessive working hours, workers being paid less than minimum wage, lack of access to health or social care, and physical and sexual violence.

In August, five Jamaican farm workers were dismissed early from the programme, with media reports linking their dismissal to their involvement in a protest held in June to highlight their living conditions in Canada.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security subsequently announced in September that the dismissed workers would be placed on other farms when the new season of operations begins in January 2024.

In the meantime, Charles praised the farm workers for their contributions to both the Canadian and Jamaican economies by their participation in the programme.

“What really is outstanding is the prominence of the good work of some of our farm workers. Despite all the issues you may hear about, employers do express gratitude to some of our young farm workers, and the older ones also, who are not just a part of the labour force, but they are supervisors and managers,” said Charles.

“They are contributing to Canada’s economy, and in turn, they are able to come back and contribute to the economy here in Jamaica and to really uplift their lives and families. It is a very important programme, and our hope is that we can continue to strengthen the programme, we can weed out the issues we are having, and we can resolve some of the hitches that we see occurring in terms of farm worker to farm worker relations and farm worker to employer relations,” Charles added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com