In light of the Government’s recent announcement of new curfew measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, Culture Minister Olivia Grange has announced that there will be no National Labour Day projects during this year’s observation of Workers Week.

Grange made the announcement in a ministerial statement to Parliament today (May 5).

She said that “the Cabinet has decided that in keeping with the restrictions, there will be no National Labour Day projects this year”.

The announcement comes just a day after Prime Minister Andrew Holness relayed to the House of Representatives that this year’s Labour Day observation would feature an all-day lockdown, with a 2 p.m. curfew beginning on Sunday, May 23 and ending on Tuesday, May 25 at 5 a.m.

2021 Labour Day Celebrations

According to Grange, this year’s Workers Week, which will be recognised from Sunday, May 16 to Monday, May 24, will be celebrated under the theme “Promoting a clean and healthy environment”, with the slogan for Labour Day being “Stay Home, Stay Safe, This Labour Day Clean Up Your Space”.

Given the focus on staying home, she said, “this Labour Day, particular emphasis will be placed on ridding homes and their surroundings of conditions/elements which will encourage the breeding of mosquitoes”.

She noted that “this (project) is guided by the recent announcement that the Ministry of Health and Wellness is on high alert for a possible increase in cases of dengue fever, especially with the forecast of rainfall in the ensuing months”.

In addition, the minister stated that “a secondary focus of Labour Day will be the encouragement of Jamaicans to either start or restart their backyard gardens. In this regard, a special appeal is being made to members of parliament and councilors to encourage their constituents to start a backyard garden at home if they do not have one”.

To this end, Grange advised that she has reached out to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change to provide support for citizens for their Labour Day projects and to raise public awareness about their initiatives.

Through its recently renewed Backyard Garden Programme, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, in collaboration with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), seeks to assist 3,000 residents across the island to grow vegetables and herbs in small spaces in their backyards.

Given this, the National Labour Day Secretariat will be collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture and RADA to see how interested householders can be assisted with seedlings to establish their backyard gardens.

In the case of the Ministry of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change, there is an ongoing National Tree Planting Initiative that was launched by the prime minister in 2019 with the objective to plant three million trees in three years to support national development in climate change and reforestation efforts.

Owing to this fact, the Secretariat will also collaborate with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change by encouraging interested members of the public to collect ornamental and timber seedlings at the Forestry Department’s nursery and to plant the trees in their yards on Labour Day.