Amid fallout from Melissa, gov’t must address contract employment in tourism to protect workers — Opposition

As hundreds of hospitality workers sit at home in post-hurricane uncertainty, the Opposition says now is the time for the Government to address the issue of contract employment in the sector, arguing that workers are at a disadvantage.

According to Opposition Spokesperson on Tourism Andrea Purkiss, up to 90 per cent of Jamaica’s hotel workers are employed on rolling short-term contracts of three, six, or twelve months at a time.

“This is a deliberate strategy used by large, overseas-based hotel operators to prevent workers from qualifying for the employment protections guaranteed under the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payments) Act of 1974,” said Purkiss in a statement on Friday.

“Between contracts, workers are given calculated ‘contract breaks’ — artificial gaps designed specifically to reset the clock on their statutory rights. These are not flexible working arrangements. They are a legal trap,” she argued.

The Opposition spokesperson is charging that Hurricane Melissa has exposed employment issues in the tourism sector.

“Workers who have given years of loyal service to the same property now face the possibility that their hurricane-era contract simply will not be renewed. The storm did not create their vulnerability. The contract system did,” asserted Purkiss.

She continued: “But the injustice cuts even deeper. Because their employment history on paper is a series of broken contracts, many of these workers cannot properly benefit from the National Insurance Scheme they have faithfully contributed to. Nor can they access bank loans or secure mortgages. They have built Jamaica’s most valuable export industry, yet they cannot build a home of their own.”

The Opposition spokesperson is therefore calling on Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr. and Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett to address this issue.

“The relevant legislation must be amended to recognise continuity of employment based on the actual working relationship, not the contractual architecture designed to evade it,” said Purkiss.

“Jamaica’s tourism workers have served this industry and this country with distinction. They deserve the full protection of our laws, not a system engineered to deny it to them. The time for action is now,” she added.

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