GOVERNMENT Senator Kavan Gayle has pointed out that the motor vehicle duty concession benefit which the present Administration has signalled its intention to remove from the perquisites offered to public sector workers, if not properly handled, could jeopardise the compensation review process for the sector.

“I would say that if proper consultation and understanding does not take place, the continued deliberations on the compensation review with the Ministry of Finance could become hazardous,” the senator told the Jamaica Observer on Sunday.

Senator Gayle stressed that the concession is a major benefit for people remaining in the public sector. “Travelling officers view it as a major dependent, especially those that, based on their job, must travel extensively and navigate terrain,” he told the Observer on the weekend.

The benefit includes a 20 per cent concession on customs duties, and exemptions from other tariffs that would usually apply to vehicle importation.

“Purchase of a vehicle with this type of support is seen as a capital expense and also an investment, and an increase in salary, in my view, will not substitute this benefit. Many travelling officers use the motor vehicle upkeep to pay the car loans over the maximum period of the loans which may be equivalent to the duration of the duty concessions,” Senator Gayle said, adding that the concession is “just an ease”.

Several government workers have taken to social media platforms to express strong disapproval over the planned removal of the benefit, following statements by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke who indicated last week that the Government wants to remove the duty concession which thousands of public sector workers are entitled to as part of their benefits package.

“Workers are incensed because it appears that the proposed removal of the provision is a subtraction of their benefits. We learned to do addition in math before subtraction. In the absence of a whole picture, it’s difficult to be calm,” said Senator Gayle whose Bustamante Industrial Trade Union represents some public sector workers.

He said he had raised the matter with the finance minister previously, wherein some employees in the sector had already been denied the benefit under the instruction of the Ministry of Finance.

The senior trade unionist weighed in on the issue as the clock wound down on an ultimatum from the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) for the finance ministry to present documents detailing the compensation review for the public sector.

The JCTU said it had informed the finance minister that that “normalcy cannot be guaranteed in the sector” if it does not receive the documents by today.

It is also demanding that a meeting is held within the next two weeks to start finalising the compensation review.

The confederation, meanwhile, has categorised the proposal to remove the long-standing duty concession benefit as “an attempt to divide and rule member unions of the JCTU”. It said it wants the review documents in order to analyse the results of the consultant’s report and recommendations, so that it can wrap up discussions on finalising the review process.

Opening the 2022/23 Budget Debate in March, Clarke advised that it will cost the Government more than $100 billion to restructure the system of public sector compensation over the next three years.

He told Parliament that approximately $17 billion of that is for certain categories of allowances that, up until the fiscal year, had been classified as programmes and not wages.

Dr Clarke said the restructuring is aimed at overhauling the system of salaries and other emoluments in the public service to make it more equitable.

One senior staff in the court system told the Observer: “I am ready to strike! I was never a fan of protest actions but these people take civil servants for tools! Right now it’s as if it is only one union they’re corresponding with and everyone else is in the dark, being delivered whatever with a ‘Take it or leave it’ approach. I am livid!”

The employee said not only is she willing to protest, but she is willing to rally as many people as possible.

Another said: “This is what we get from ‘No new taxes’ — an undercutting of the incomes of public sector workers. While the public is of the perception that there are no new taxes then these things are imposed on workers that may as well be taxes, because we end up going home with less.”

To benefit from a motor vehicle import duty concession, applicants must be officers appointed and confirmed in a travelling post in the public service and be eligible for full upkeep, commuted or fixed allowance. Vehicles can’t be any older than three years, and commercial vehicles are barred.