Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says the Tourism Workers’ Pension Act came into effect on January 31, paving the way for registration under the pension scheme to begin soon.

“This gazetted date sets the stage for the Board of Trustees to conclude the arrangements with the fund manager and the fund administrator. The framework for the development of regulations is now underway and I am hoping to take this to Parliament tomorrow, but if not, certainly within the first few sittings within the new parliamentary year, ” Bartlett said in a statement this afternoon.

He was speaking at a press conference at the Ministry of Tourism’s New Kingston offices earlier today.

The long-awaited Tourism Workers’ Pensions scheme is designed to cover all workers ages 18-59 years in the tourism sector, whether permanent, contract or self-employed.

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

The pension scheme will receive $1 billion in funding from the Ministry of Tourism to augment the pool of funds.

The Augmented Pension Beneficiaries will be persons who joined the Scheme at 59 years old.

With the Ministry’s injection of funds, these persons will qualify for a minimum pension.

He added that “the regulations will allow for 180 days period for the Augmented Pensions Beneficiaries. After we have designated that, those people will have the opportunity to register. Once they have registered, they will be on and the programme begins with earnest with the ordinary members.”

The pension scheme will see persons contributing an initial 3% of their income for the first three years and then 5% after that – this contribution is then matched by the employer.

However, employees have the option of giving up to 15% of their salaries over time.

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