THE MINISTRY of Labour and Social Security has confirmed sexual misbehaviour by Jamaican women has affected its overseas hotel job programme.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Anthony Irons, however, said the misconduct was limited to a minority of the women and denied this had led to the suspension of recruitment.
"We are not refusing people because of that. We are not taking on any more people now because we advertised in September and a large number of people turned up and there are no more vacancies," Mr. Irons said.
He said US employers would return to Jamaica in late January and early February to interview the candidates. It is expected that the programme will increase from about 4,000 persons to 5,000 next year.
But, Mr. Irons admitted bad behaviour, including sexual misconduct by some of the women had resulted in about five per cent being sent home or going AWOL (Absent Without Leave).
"Some have really behaved badly, including fighting and prostitution. We've had some very bad reports from our liaison officers and some employers about women taking men into rooms they share with other women or into taxis and getting paid to have sex," he said.
"We've had cases where they have been caught in the act. Recently they caught a couple of Jamaican workers having sex in a guest's room at one of the hotels."
Mr. Irons said the situation had gotten so bad that the employers had informed the Ministry not to send any more women to do some duties, including kitchen and housekeeping and were expressing a preference for male workers.
About 80 per cent of the nearly 4,000 workers in the programme are women. They live in rented accommodation outside the hotels.
