Housing solutions coming for tourism workers

Plans are under way to deliver housing solutions to workers within the tourism sector, through a combination of both public and private-sector partnerships, which will provide an opportunity for workers to build a stronger future for themselves and their family.

Providing an update on the developments, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said major housing developments are advancing in St James and other resort areas.

“The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) bought 250 acres from FINSAC to provide and pass it over to HAJ (Housing Agency of Jamaica), that began with a site in Grange Pen, which is across the road from Iberostar,” Bartlett said.

“It was an informal settlement, you know, people call it squatter settlement and we went in and regularised that whole arrangement, put in roads, water, sewerage, electricity, and now we have 535 families that the prime minister will give titles to shortly because they are ready.”

The minister was speaking during a Ministerial Interview with the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) at the ministry’s New Kingston offices recently.

Bartlett further stated that the HAJ is partnering with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to finalise a joint venture to build 1,500 houses for workers of the industry, for which ground is to be broken soon.

“HAJ is currently in discussion to finalise a JV (joint venture) with CHEC in order to build 1,500 houses for the workers of the industry right across the road from Iberostar and in the same area… we’ll have 6,000 hotel rooms,” he stated.

“They are actually on designs and everything already. We expect to break ground for it later on this year or perhaps in the first quarter of next year.”

Additionally, he informed that workers will be able to benefit from opportunities being offered through the National Housing Trust (NHT).

“The NHT is building another 1,500 in Barrett Hall, which is just a little way down close to the border of Trelawny and…, you know, the NHT builds for everybody, but tourism workers can have access there,” he stated.

Highlighting the participation of the private sector, Bartlett noted that several major hotels are also incorporating a housing component in their buildout.

“The hotels are building houses. They’re also building dormitories. Princess has built 500 rooms for workers. Palladium is under construction now and building out 600 houses for workers. A number of other hotels have bought lands. I know, for example, that Unico, Hard Rock they are in the closing stages of buying about 200 acres in the St James area to build houses for the workers,” he informed.

He added that by strategy and policy “we are determining that any investor who comes building 500 rooms or more must have a housing component for the workers”.

Turning to the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme, Bartlett said, so far, the fund has accumulated $6 billion in savings, with approximately 11,000 workers registered, representing under 10 per cent of workers in the sector.

“It’s the only pension scheme of this type in the world that embraces all categories of workers in the industry… hotel workers, attractions, craft vendors, taxi drivers, rafters on the Rio Grande and other places [as well as] red cap workers at the airport. We’re also embracing the courtesy corps and the security corps that operate at the two airports and at the shipping ports where cruise is an important part, for example, Falmouth, Ocho Rios and Montego Bay,” Bartlett said.

He indicated that the idea for the pension scheme was conceptualised following his interaction with an almost 80-year-old red cap worker who had voiced his unwillingness to retire even after 45 years of service.

“One December morning when we were having a breakfast at Norman Manley at the start of the winter tourist season in 2010 and I saw an elderly man, he was about 70 or 80 struggling with the luggage as a red cap. I went over and said to him why are you still here and he said well, ‘I’ve been here for 45 years doing this’, and I said so why are you not retiring and he said, ‘well, minister, if I retire, I won’t eat’,” Bartlett said.

“I said something was wrong with that picture, you can’t serve the industry for 40 odd years and you are afraid to leave because you’ll go into pecuniary, and immediately I said to my PS (Permanent Secretary) we’re going to have to change this picture, that’s how the pension fund was born.”

The first cohort of tourism workers will begin receiving benefits under the scheme, within the next three years.

“The actuaries are working on what those numbers are going to be in terms of… the first cohort of beneficiaries…, and then how you would accrete over time. But what I can say is that this particular development is not just a social security safety net for the workers of the industry but it is also a capital formation that will enable significant investments for domestic growth and development of the economy,” he said.

Bartlett noted that the pension fund will be the largest pool of affordable funds in Jamaica and possibly the Caribbean, noting that the target is to accumulate $100 billion in the fund in the next 10 years.

He said the pension scheme also includes private small entrepreneurs in the tourism sector.

“Anyone whose livelihood is 30 per cent or more dependent on tourism, qualifies to be a member,” he said, while encouraging other stakeholders to join the programme.

Meanwhile, the minister said plans are afoot to develop a programme of health security for workers in the sector.

“We’re in the process of working through a programme of health security for the workers. Our actuaries who have worked with us on the pension programme are looking at how we can integrate the health area with the pension programme. As the insurance funds accrete, we could develop a health component,” he said.

He noted that more details will be provided on the undertaking at a later date.

- JIS

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