VZCZCXRO1469
PP RUEHGR
DE RUEHKG #0418/01 1421935
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221935Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7658
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/USDOLABOR WASHDC
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 2371

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINGSTON 000418 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR (ACADIEUX) (VDEPIRRO) (WSMITH) 
WHA/EPSC (MROONEY)(FCORNEILLE) 
INR/RES (RWARNER) 
SANTO DOMINGO FOR FCS AND FAS 
HOMELAND SECURITY FOR ALEX GISSER 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: CVIS PHUM SOCI PREL ELAB JM XL
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: JCLO APPEARS TO CHARGE JAMAICAN GUEST WORKERS IN 
U.S. FOR UNNECESSARY SERVICES 
 
REF: STATE 044004 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Post believes that the mandatory payroll 
deductions imposed on Jamaican H2A and H2B guest workers to fund the 
activities of the Jamaican Central Labour Organization (JCLO) are 
duplicative of services provided by the Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS) and the Jamaican Embassy and consulates in the U.S., 
and thereby violate USCIS H2A and H2B Final Rules, effective January 
2009, disallowing "prohibited fees" (REFTEL).  End Summary. 
 
Background 
------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Each year, over 12,000 Jamaican nationals participate in 
H2A and H2B guest worker programs in the United States.  Jamaica's 
Ministry of Labour (MOL): manages the pre-selection and selection 
phases of the H2A program, as well as selecting about forty percent 
of H2B applicants; conducts medical clearances and criminal 
background checks; and makes travel arrangements for the program 
participants.  Meanwhile, the quasi-governmental Jamaica Central 
Labour Organization (JCLO), with offices in the U.S. and Canada, 
monitors work conditions and assists Jamaican H2A and H2B workers 
with lost passports, insurance, medical care, contact with loved 
ones, emergency travel plans, etc.  Private H2B recruiters are 
licensed and regulated by MOL, but are not served by the JCLO. 
 
History 
------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Jamaican guest worker program has its origins in the 
U.S.'s labor shortages during World War II.  While the Mexican 
bracero program of the 1940s through the 1960s supplied agricultural 
workers in the western U.S., language, cultural and transportation 
concerns made workers from the West Indies more popular in the 
eastern United States. 
 
¶4. (SBU) As Jamaica was a British colony at the time, the initial 
agreements were between the governments of the USA and the United 
Kingdom.  The British West Indies Central Labour Organization 
(BWICLO) was established in 1943 to facilitate the provision of 
laborers from throughout the British Caribbean, although the vast 
majority of the workers in the program were always Jamaican.  A 
Regional Labour Board (RLB) was established in 1951 to oversee and 
formulate the guest worker policies of the BWICLO.  The current H2A 
program was introduced in 1947 and the H2B program in 1970.  As the 
British began divesting themselves of their colonies in the 1950s, 
the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) took over the program and it was 
renamed the West Indies Central Labour Organization (WICLO) in 1983. 
In 2001, the program was renamed yet again, this time as the 
Jamaica Central Labour Organization (JCLO).  Since 2004, JCLO has 
overseen Jamaica's H2A, H2B, and J1 student exchange programs. 
 
Jamaican Central Labour Organization 
------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) In a meeting on April 24, 2009, representatives of 
Jamaica's Ministry of Labour (MOL) discussed the H2A and H2B 
programs with Emboffs.  They explained that JCLO functions as the 
unincorporated nonprofit administrative arm of the RLB, an 
instrumentality of a foreign sovereign charged with enforcing labor 
policies decided upon in the Caribbean.  Although the RLB does 
include representatives of other West Indian nations, the vast 
majority of the guest workers it oversees are Jamaicans.  As such, 
the JCLO sees itself as comparable to the U.S. Department of Labor 
in its function and focus. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The JCLO is funded through mandatory four-to-five percent 
wage deductions from the H2A and H2B workers sponsored by the MOL. 
In return, MOL representatives noted that JCLO representatives in 
the U.S. visit work sites to ensure that contract provisions are 
being respected, that workers have adequate housing and work 
conditions, and that they are fed properly.  They also perform 
quasi-consular services such as facilitating travel for guest 
workers who need to return home unexpectedly, replacing lost 
passports, passing messages between guest workers and loved ones in 
Jamaica, etc. 
 
¶7. (SBU) It is unclear whether the JCLO deductions constitute a 
"recruitment fee."  Although MOL maintains that JCLO does not 
recruit potential H2A employers/petitioners, Google Internet 
searches turn up a number of Government of Jamaica (GOJ) and MOL 
 
KINGSTON 00000418  002 OF 002 
 
 
press releases and statements extolling JCLO's "recruitment" 
activities at job fairs. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Emboffs question whether a quasi-governmental foreign 
entity such as the JCLO is necessary, given that DHS is tasked with 
monitoring H2A and H2B guest worker programs and that the Jamaican 
Embassy and several consulates exist to provide consular services to 
Jamaican citizens in the United States.  Furthermore, the JCLO's 
medical and criminal background screenings are not required of H2A 
and H2B applicants; if the petitioning employer requires them, they 
should cover the expense, not the laborer.  If the JCLO's activities 
merely provide unnecessary services or duplicate programs already 
offered by DHS and the Jamaican Embassy, the mandatory four-to-five 
percent wage deductions imposed on Jamaican guest workers would seem 
to violate the USCIS H2A and H2B Final Rules, effective January 
2009, disallowing "prohibited fees." 
 
------ 
Potential Jamaican Response 
------ 
 
¶9. (SBU) JCLO has been in existence for over fifty years and is a 
well-established entity with offices and employees in the U.S. and 
Canada.  To prohibit JCLO from collecting the mandatory employee 
wage deductions that provide for its operating expenses would likely 
cripple the program in the U.S.  Nevertheless, it would appear that 
JCLO survives by taking the already modest wages of the minimally 
skilled Jamaican laborers, while providing few, if any, services not 
already provided by DHS and the Jamaican Embassy and consulates. 
JCLO and MOL will likely protest and maintain that the organization 
provides vital monitoring and consular services to Jamaican guest 
workers in the U.S.  However, the evidence presented here suggests 
that JCLO exists mainly to skim revenues from Jamaican guest 
workers. 
 
Conclusion and Recommendation 
------ 
¶10. (SBU) The mandatory four to five percent payroll deduction 
imposed on all Jamaican H2A and H2B guest workers sponsored by MOL 
is used by JCLO to either conduct screenings not required under U.S. 
law or to provide services already provided by DHS and/or the 
Jamaican Embassy and consulates in the U.S.  As such, these 
deductions appear to constitute "prohibited fees" under USCIS H2A 
and H2B Final Rules, effective January 2009.  Therefore, Post 
recommends that, so long as JCLO collects its mandatory four-to-five 
percent wage deductions, the MOL be considered a recruiting agency 
imposing prohibited fees on H2 workers. 
 
MOSS