MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica; Monday, September 21, 2026: Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett is pressing for greater participation in the island’s four-year-old Tourism Workers Pension Scheme (TWPS). While pleased with its progress, he has set a bold new target of 50,000 members by 2028, with savings of over J$100 billion.
While advocating for the 175,000 workers directly employed in the tourism industry to be enrolled over time in the social safety net that offers them human dignity, Minister Bartlett expressed disappointment at the response by some industry employers to the scheme and hinted that it could be made mandatory. He highlighted that there are currently just under 11,000 registered members with an estimated $6 billion in savings.
Speaking at the TWPS annual general meeting at the Montego Bay Convention Centre recently, he told tourism employers: “When you contribute to your workers' pension, you are not losing money, you are gaining loyalty, productivity and retention.”
He added that: “For 50 years workers gave their smiles, their service, their soul to make Jamaica the greatest tourism destination on earth, but when they retired, they retired with nothing, no safety net, no cushion. That was unjust. So, we could not call ourselves a world-class destination while our people live in world-class insecurity.”
Tourism must be about people first, said Minister Bartlett, and the pension scheme represented social justice in action. He stressed that it was an employer's best investment, because it will result in productivity and loyalty.
However, he revealed to the workers that “several hotels that I have visited, and attractions too, are not as energetic about getting you to join the pension plan because they have to put a matching contribution.”
Minister Bartlett said research worldwide shows that workers who have social protection were more motivated, more stable, and more service-oriented.
Urging the managers of the pension scheme to go after every category of tourism worker, including the self-employed, and “leave no tourism worker behind,” Minister Bartlett suggested the possibility of involving the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) “to make pension, enrollment a condition of operation.”
He noted that the entities were already licensed but a close look was being taken of the act governing this process “so we will see what happens in the act,” and he’s been advised “not to rule out that possibility because we have to get it.”
Minister Bartlett also promoted the pension fund as an avenue to boost domestic savings, and a strategic way to contribute to capital formation and economic growth.
“Jamaica has long struggled with low domestic savings. We are depending on foreign capital, but true economic independence comes when we mobilize our own savings to build our own economy and country,” he said. The Minister outlined that the TWPS savings “can now be invested in Jamaica, in its infrastructure, in housing, in businesses, and in government paper. This is how we build capital formation. This is how you lower interest rates, and this is how you create wealth that stays in Jamaica,” he suggested.
He didn’t stop there. Minister Bartlett urged the tourism workers pension fund managers “to explore now beyond to add health insurance, disability coverage, and a housing support component.” He says discussions are also underway “to have a situation where tourism workers can get a mortgage up to 40 or 50 years, backed by a secure arrangement.”
