RIU Hotel in Montego Bay hires 35 foreign contractors: What about unemployed Jamaican citizens?

BY JAMIECE CAMPBELL

As the rest of the world, Jamaica has been attempting to combat the economic crisis that COVID-19 brought along. Tourism, an enormous sector that rakes in billions in revenue, was put to an abrupt halt due to lengthy unprecedented border closures. It’s been reported that approximately 75% (about 120,000 workers) of the country’s tourist sector had become unemployed.

With that being said, it’s been recently brought to our attention that there has been a huge job opportunity in the country… only, it’s not being offered to its citizens. We received this message from a concerned worker regarding this questionable matter:

“Jamaicans are out of work and the government is importing workers. This is unacceptable, I have many workers in Central St. James who need jobs NOW!

Thirty-five labourers from the Dominican Republic arrived in Jamaica, via Montego Bay yesterday by way of private aircraft, to work as carpenters, plumbers, masons, tilers et al, at the RIU hotel now under refurbishment in Montego Bay.

These workmen who came into our island, to work on a foreign owned hotel, were furnished with Jamaican work permits, while hundreds of our skilled labourers cannot find a job in Jamaica.

The whole idea of getting overseas hotels was not only that they will attract  another type of visitor to our shores, but that in the construction phase of the hotel as well as in the refurbishing phase of the property, skilled Jamaican craftsmen would benefit from the work to be done on the hotel.”

Indeed, quite a head-scratcher. For a country that requested emergency financing from the International Monetary Fund (a bill of $520 million, to be exact) for recovery efforts and supporting vulnerable individuals, it’s a puzzling question as to why their national people weren’t prioritized. What’s even more jarring is the second part of this message:

“Now, when they came in, there was no interpreter at the airport to assist the health team in their interviews. Neither was there any evidence that that the passengers had been tested [for COVID-19] before coming to Jamaica. 

 Now they are free to roam or infect whomever they wish, because we cannot stop them from roaming across the island. The Dominican Republic has nearly 54,000 infections, nearly 1,000 deaths, according to a running tally of the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

Yesterday, Dominican Republic’s President Danilo Medina declared a state of emergency for 45 days due to an increase in coronavirus cases. The decision came as new spikes in coronavirus cases have been recorded countrywide following the reopening process to facilitate tourism.

The order, which was approved by Congress, took effect today for a period of 20 days then it will be reviewed based on the epidemiological evolution of COVID-19 in the country.”

Fact check on this one: as of August 12^th, 2020, the Dominican Republic actually has 82,224 confirmed cases and 1,371 deaths. With Jamaica having just over 1,000 cases and a miniscule 14 deaths, these statistics are extremely alarming.

Jamaica’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security released a statement on this issue. To sum it up, they confirmed that 34 of the 35 enlisted workers had been employed to Clima Insular Caribe Ltd, a maintenance company contracted by the RIU Hotel. The press release claims that these chosen individuals have a keen expertise in a range of services such as air conditioning, air duct repairs and underwater welding. They conclude with a promise that this project will provide employment for approximately 400 Jamaicans. They did not address where the workers had arrived from or why unemployed Jamaican labourers were not the first to be sought out.

In recent months, Jamaica majorly invested in its tourism sector with the debut of a free online training program for workers negatively affected by the virus. A program that received over 6,500 registrants within its first few days of launching, it’s clear that people in the country are searching for work and are effectively preparing themselves for when it’s time to return to normalcy. While it seems as sort of a slap-in-the-face to bring in foreign labourers, are they doing right by the country by creating more jobs?

We’ve personally reached out to Jamaica’s Ministry of Labour and Security and they have not responded to our requests for comment.