Customs work to rule campaign delays cargo clearance at port

A work to rule campaign carried out by three customs trade unions have resulted in delays in General Cargo release as well as held up work at head office, customs spokesman Seevali Arukgoda said today.

 He explained that however the clearance of cargo at the airport and clearance essential food and medical items would not be delayed despite the trade union action.

The customs Trade Union Alliance consisting of Customs Officers Union, Custom Superintendents Union as well as The Officers Union called for the work to rule campaign over five demands.

One of their key demands was to stop use of finger print machines to record in and out times of customs officers.

Accotding to a directive which came as an instruction to all state institution staff should have finger print machines to mark time of employee’s arrival and departure.

However the move was heavily criticized by the customs unions, as they pointed out that their work time differs according to nature of their work as they are requested to operate on an on-call incidents basis.

The unions also demanded not to appoint development officers as customs officers and remove them from service, provide the delayed promotions and implement the amended recruitment process.

Demands were also made to remove the Additional Customs Director General (Human Resource Management) and appoint another officer.

president of the Customs Officers Union, J.G.A Sanjeewa said explained that the customs is having around 500 vacancies, therefore they also demand to fully resolve the vacancy issue through recruitments.

He added that they are currently having a meeting with the Treasury to discuss on their demands and threatened that they would get strict union actions if their demands are not fulfilled.

 Meanwhile a senior officer of the customs said that they obtained the approval to recruit 150 customs officers trough an examination.