Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme savings at $1 billion
Published:Saturday | September 2, 2023 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
SINCE ITS inception more than a year and a half ago, the Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme (TWPS) has grown to $1 billion, according to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett.
The Sagicor Life Jamaica-managed TWPS was launched in January 2022 and is designed to cover all permanent, contract, and self-employed workers in the tourism sector, including craft vendors, tour operators, red cap porters, contract carriage operators, and workers at attractions.
The TWPS encompasses all workers in the tourism industry, aged 18 to 59, and benefits are payable at age 65 or older.
According to the tourism minister, some 9,000 employees in the sector have so far contributed, saving the first $1 billion in the pension scheme.
The Government has seeded the fund with J$1 billion so that beneficiaries who have met the five-year vesting period can receive immediate benefits.
At a town hall in Montego Bay on Thursday, Bartlett said that noted the historic milestone.
“Nine thousand workers are now members of the pension scheme, which is the first tourism pension scheme in the world for workers in the tourism industry,” he said.
Earlier this year, Bartlett had been urging non-compliant employers in the industry to honour their commitment to employees by matching the five per cent contribution made by TWPS members.
This year, on the pension plan’s anniversary, the contribution rate for members was increased from three to five per cent.
Employers are required to contribute the same amount, but Bartlett complained at the scheme’s first annual general meeting in July that some employers were not compliant.