The Government of Jamaica (GOJ) is seeking to advance the proposal for an unemployment insurance scheme in short order, according to Labour and Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr.
He made the announcement during his address at the Heads of CARICOM Social Security Organisations conference in Montego Bay, St James, on Thursday.
Unemployment insurance is defined as a mandatory, contributory scheme that is financed primarily through contributions by employers and employees.
It would provide income support to recently laid-off workers as they try to find new employment. Similar schemes are implemented in many countries around the world.
Charles Jr said unemployment insurance is an important area that the Government views as being critical.
"... And one of the important areas that we're also seeking to address, and which actually revealed itself as even more critical through the last two years, is the matter of unemployment insurance," he said.
"That's a matter we will be advancing in short order," he assured.
In May of this year, Chairman of the Recovery Planning Committee of the National Disaster Risk Management Council, Dr Wayne Henry, said a feasibility study had been completed on unemployment insurance in Jamaica.
Henry, who is also Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), said unemployment insurance is one of the recommendations of the Labour Market Reform Commission that was housed at the PIOJ.
"It is an extremely robust document (the commission's report)," said Henry who was speaking at the working session of the National Disaster Risk Management Council meeting at the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston in May of this year.
Continuing, he said: "Cabinet has reviewed it (the report), and a number of recommendations (were made), and one of those recommendations included looking at the feasibility of establishing unemployment insurance, and because of the occasion of the (COVID-19) pandemic, that has been fast-tracked.
"We have completed that, and it is now ready to go back to Cabinet, just for the sort of engagement with unions. So, it’s something we are looking into, (which is) making the social protection mechanism for Jamaica much more robust," Henry stated then.
Unemployment insurance would complete Jamaica's social protection floor, as it is the only missing element as articulated in the Jamaica Social Protection Strategy of 2014, a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) news article reported this year.
It can also serve as an important macroeconomic stabilisation tool during periods of economic downturn, by strengthening the country’s ability to respond to economic shocks, while reducing the risk of poverty among workers and their families in periods of crisis.
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