Government confirms labour violations in Cuban medical programme

The Government of Jamaica has acknowledged that aspects of its long-standing medical cooperation programme with Cuba raised serious labour concerns.

Cuban medical personnel working on the island were not in possession of their passports, and their salaries were paid directly to the Cuban government.

In a statement Saturday, the Jamaican Government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affair and Foreign Trade, said it "discovered that salary payments for Cuban medical personnel, while calculated at the same level as their Jamaican counterparts, were being made by Jamaica to the Cuban authorities in US dollars".

The Jamaican Government said that overtime payments were the only payments made directly by the Government of Jamaica to the personnel themselves.

"Even more concerning, there was no contractual provision specifying what share of those salary payments was to be paid to the workers. That arrangement raised serious concerns under Jamaican labour and tax laws as well as under international labour conventions," Jamaica said.

The admission came after a government review of the programme, which was triggered by international scrutiny and concerns raised about the treatment of Cuban doctors and nurses deployed overseas.

Cuban medical professionals have been a critical part of Jamaica's public health system for the past 50 years, helping to fill gaps in hospitals and clinics across the country.

However, pressure from the United States, which had raised concerns about Cuban medical missions abroad, citing potential labour exploitation and lack of worker autonomy led a review The US intervention prompted Jamaica to conduct a formal review of the programme. It ultimately led to the programme's abrupt end last week.

"Beginning in July of last year, Jamaica commenced formal discussions with the Cuban authorities aimed at restructuring the arrangement to ensure compliance with Jamaican law and international conventions, which require that workers be paid directly and have control of their travel document," the government said.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affair and Foreign Trade, several attempts were made to have the Cuban authorities resolve the issues but there was no effective response from Havana.

"Given our legal obligations, our duty to ensure fairness to workers in Jamaica, and the need for compliance with our own laws and international conventions, the Government ultimately concluded that continuation on the existing terms was untenable," Jamaica said.