Preparations Well Advanced for Labour Day

Preparations are well advanced for Workers’ Week and Labour Day 2016 activities.

This year Labour Day will be observed on Monday, May 23. It is a day when communities participate in work projects across the island. Workers’ Week begins on May 15 and culminates on Labour Day.

Labour Day activities will be unveiled next week by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness at an official launching ceremony scheduled to take place at Jamaica House.

The national project, parish projects and the theme for Labour Day 2016 will also be revealed.

Over the past weeks, members of the National Labour Day Planning Committee have been meeting to discuss the activities, including the Worker’s Week and Labour Day Thanksgiving Church Service and the Labour Day Concert.

Speaking to committee members at a meeting, held recently at Jamaica House, Chairman of the National Labour Day Planning Committee and  Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, said the Government is moving to rekindle the spirit of volunteerism.

“We know the value of volunteerism is infinite, especially in the absence of adequate budgets. We must push harder for volunteers from the various cross sections of individuals and also from the private sector,” she said.

According to Minister Grange, Workers’ Week and Labour Day 2016 will focus “on the concept of linking healthy outcomes to a clean environment.”

She said that citizens must respond to the urgent need of cleaning up the environment, which “has been seriously affected by the periodic pile-up of garbage resulting in the spread of rodents, viruses and vector borne diseases.”

Labour Day is organised by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, in collaboration with the Ministries of Labour and Social Security and Local Government and Community Development.