Is the Jamaican government giving BPO investors the “green light to disregard labour laws”?
There are currently 40,000 workers in Jamaica’s global services industry; the government is aiming for 300,000 jobs in the industry by 2030. But “at what cost?” trade unions are asking.
(Alamy/Artur Marciniec
)
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There are currently 40,000 workers in Jamaica’s global services industry; the government is aiming for 300,000 jobs in the industry by 2030. But “at what cost?” trade unions are asking.
(Alamy/Artur Marciniec
)
With tens of thousands of jobs linked to the tourism sector lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Jamaican government has heralded the island’s fast-expanding business process outsourcing (BPO) sector as a much-needed source of jobs. However, there are major concerns about the widespread breech of workers’ rights in the sector. Of the 40,000 BPO workers in Jamaica – whose roles vary from customer services to technical support, sales and more – nearly all are working on fixed-term and temporary contracts, and not one of the 70-plus companies operating on the island has allowed trade union representation within their firms.