Customs staff facing redundancy
New Zealand’s border is set to lose some of its protection forces as the head count at Customs is reduced.
Staff at Customs have been asked to volunteer for redundancy or early retirement to help cut costs ahead of the Government’s May Budget.
The Public Service Association and E tū, two unions representing Customs workers, says Customs can’t make the cuts without impacting critical services and losing valuable, experienced workers who are our first line of defence againsts those who threaten the safety of New Zealanders.
“These are people helping protect our air and sea borders from dangerous illicit drugs, organised criminal gangs, and who support our importers and exporters by facilitating trade, and smoothing the passage of New Zealand and overseas travellers,” said Duane Leo, National Secretary for the PSA.
“The PSA finds it surprising that a government that wants to get tough on crime, and gangs, is now hamstringing the key organisation keeping dangerous drugs from falling into the hands of gangs through this badly thought through cost-cutting plan. It makes no sense.”
Senior leadership at Customs held an allof-staff virtual meeting yesterday to discuss ways to meet the cost-cutting imposed on the department by the Government.
Customs, which describes itself as “New Zealand’s gatekeepers”, has about 1200 staff spread around the country.
Customs could not tell Stuff how many people were expected to apply to be put out of work or how many jobs would eventually be axed in the process.
“Customs is at the beginning of this process with regards to seeking expressions of interest for voluntary redundancy or early retirement and no decisions or estimates on how many roles may be impacted or disestablished have yet been made,” a spokesperson said.
National is committed to delivering on its promised tax cuts, details of which will be announced in the Budget on May 30.
Public service agencies have been asked by the Government to identify savings of 6.5% but if their staff numbers have increased by more than 50% since 2015 they are expected to find higher savings of 7.5%.
Customs is in the lower 6.5% band and is just one of 24 public agencies being forced to make cuts.
All three government parties – National, ACT and NZ First – made promises on the campaign to cut “wasteful spending” in what National called the “bloated bureaucracy”.
In November last year, before the Government was even formed, Stuff revealed that one of the country’s biggest ministries, the Ministry of Innovation, Business and Employment, was also exploring voluntary redundancy with its staff.
An email leaked to Stuff that was sent to MBIE staff from boss Carolyn Tremain shows that cuts and changes were being made including a 15% reduction of all discretionary spending, exploring a voluntary redundancy process and getting rid of the $27 per person funding for end of year functions.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has so far been unable to say how many public servants overall will lose their jobs as a result of the cuts.