Seychelles Revenue Commission |11 June 2019
(L to r) Mr Barrack, Mr Louise, Mr Morel, Minister Loustau-Lalanne
Customs officers vent frustrations over new salary scheme
A group of customs officers yesterday met with the Minister for Finance, Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, to know about the status of their approved new salary scheme.
The meeting, held at the Cargo Terminal at Pointe Larue, was attended by some twenty five staff including the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) management - Fred Morel, acting Commissioner General of the SRC; Elvis Louise, assistant commissioner support service; Paul Barrack, commissioner for customs; François Ally, the customs director for the airport terminal and Sandy Julienne, the customs manager for the airport terminal.
The customs officers have been waiting for their new scheme since 2017 and in the 2019 budget, the Minister for Finance approved a budget of R7m to review the scheme.
The staff were supposed to receive their dues as of January this year but so far, they have not heard anything. Thus, they decided to write to President Faure and the Finance Minister to seek for clarifications. Finally they met with the Minister for Finance yesterday morning.
After the meeting, Lisette Dupres, spokesperson for the customs officers, told the press that “it has been a few years now that we have asked for the new scheme of service. But now, everyone is tired of waiting for the new scheme. We are quite frustrated as our daily work involves risks. Many people do not know what we are going through and in what condition we are working. When nobody heard our concerns, we decided to send the letter and meet with the minister. The new scheme was approved in January and we wanted to know what the status is and what our benefits are. After this meeting, now we got some clarifications and we are hoping for the best. The minister asked us to give him some time to go find out what the matter really is all about and as a group we agreed if the new scheme does not satisfy us we will meet the minister again.”
Ms Dupres also said that the meeting went well and her colleagues put forward their complaints regarding their work at SRC.
“We, customs officers, are at risk while doing our job and also outside working hours. We get threatened on the streets and we get sworn at. All these issues are affecting us morally.”
Minister Loustau-Lalanne explained that “this morning, I learnt that the customs staff wanted to see me and I cancelled all my meetings to come to the cargo terminal to meet them. They wrote a letter to President Faure to seek guidance about their scheme of work and also evoking their conditions of work. They feel that the SRC is not doing enough for them to improve their work conditions. I listened to them and we had a professional and civilised meeting. Wherever I could, I intervened and brought some clarifications. The frustration was caused mainly due to a lack of communication.
Minister Loustau-Lalanne explained that when he visited SRC some time back, the staff brought up the new scheme of service issue and he did put a provision for them in the budget of R7m to review their scheme as of January 2019.
“Now we are in June 2019 and they still have not heard anything. I learnt that the approved scheme was sent by SRC to DPA on May 23. The staff wrote the letter to the President around the same time. So if there was a proper communication channel, we would not be here today. The staff have been waiting since 2017 and they want to know how long it will take again. Today, I have told them that by end of July, DPA should conclude on the scheme in order to inform them of the final scheme of service. After the finalisation of the scheme all staff will be compensated from January to date,” Minister Loustau-Lalanne said
The minister added that the customs officers are on the front line and they are exposed to dangerous conditions.
“They are sometimes abused and the airport is a place where drug traffickers bring in illicit drugs into the country and they feel they are at risk. There are also more planes coming in and there is a shortage of customs staff. They are currently delivering a good service but they need support in having more people to be employed at customs.”
The acting SRC commissioner general, Fred Morel noted that the meeting was mainly about the scheme of service. “It looks like there is a communication problem. Today we explained to them what the status of the scheme is and the delay we have encountered.”
He added that the scheme of service had been sent to the Department of Public Administration (DPA) and was recalled back so as to add more elements that will benefit the staff as they were asking for an increment.
As usual in order for the scheme to be approved, it requires some time to finalise the details. We finally sent the scheme to the SRC Board, which has been approved, and now it is with the DPA again. After today’s meeting and concerns by the personnel, we will work together with the DPA to speed up the process,” Mr Morel said.
Within SRC, there is the tax and customs departments and the commissioner’s and deputy commissioner’s office.
“Currently, SRC employs some 350 staff. The new scheme will take into consideration the grievances of these three departments, which will affect some 300 staff. The other 50 staff fall under the national scheme and are administered by the DPA’s scheme.”
Mr Morel also said that the staff raised some concerns on other issues within the organisation. “When listening to the staff today we found out that there is a major problem regarding communication. I saw the letter sent by the staff regarding this meeting and I had a meeting with all directors explaining the status of the scheme. This meeting cleared a few misunderstandings but I would also like to reiterate to the staff to communicate to the management whatever issues they have in the first place.”
The Ministry of Finance, which also takes care of SRC, stated that they already have a communications strategy and plan within all departments and all heads of departments are expected to convey the decisions to their respective staff.
