Customs officers protest against transfers

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In light of Poland’s accession to the EU in May 2004, the government has embarked on a restructuring of the customs service, which includes the transfer of many customs officers to the country’s eastern border. In November-December 2003, the customs officers subject to transfer protested against their reallocation and the threat of dismissal without severance pay if they refuse to comply.

Poland’s accession to the European Union in May 2004 will have two main implications for the policing of the country’s borders. One is that 1,594 kilometres of Poland’s eastern border will become the outer frontier of the enlarged EU, and the other that a large portion of the country’s borders to the west and south will essentially vanish for customs control purposes.

These imminent developments are necessitating a reorganisation and allocation of the customs service. To this end, an Inter-Departmental Team for Allocation of the Customs Service Personnel (Międzyresortowy Zespół do Spraw Alokacji Kadry Służb Celnych) was convened in December 2002, bringing together the head of the customs service, representatives of various ministries (for infrastructure, the economy and labour, agriculture and rural development, the interior and administration), and the heads of the police force and of the border guard. Representatives of the Federation of Customs Service Trade Unions (Federacja Związków Zawodowych Służby Celnej, FZZSC) also took part in the team’s sessions.

In July 2003, the team unveiled a set of proposals for the reallocation of customs service personnel. This document includes an analysis of the present status of the various organisational units of the customs services, staffing proposals to apply from May 2004 and a schedule of measures leading up to final attainment of objectives in this areas. The authors of this document expect to relocate approximately 2,000 officers presently working in customs offices covering four regions (voivodships) in the west of the country, with some 1,400 officers supplementing customs offices covering the eastern regions of Poland.

In drawing up this document, the team adopted the premise that reallocation will not entail a reduction in the overall number of customs officers. While the volume of inbound customs documents will fall dramatically following Poland’s accession to the EU (by an estimated 80%), the significant expansion of the custom services’ scope of responsibilities should justify maintaining the same level of employment.

Working on the basis of these proposals, the directors of the customs offices subject to reallocation proceeded to draw up implementing plans setting out the desired structure of their organisational structure and staffing. Lists of officers subject to reallocation were also prepared. With a view to harmonising the principles governing the work of the customs offices' directors, a special representative of the Minister of Finance and FZZSC trade union representatives drew up a protocol of agreements concerning the reallocation criteria in September 2003. In addition, efforts are being made to provide the customs officials being transferred with housing. In this respect, the directors of the customs offices taking in transferred officials are meant to cooperate with local government bodies.

From 1 November 2003, the Warsaw customs office and that at Warsaw’s Okęcie airport were merged into one, as were the customs offices in Katowice and Cieszyn and in Cracow and Nowy Targ. As a consequence, approximately 400 customs officers received, in late October, offers of transfer between various offices.

The reallocation plans met with vocal protests from the customs officials currently assigned to Poland’s western border. Early November saw the beginning of protest actions. It has transpired that those custom officer who decline offers of transfer are to be dismissed without a severance benefit, as confirmed by one of the customs office directors in an interview with the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. In the view of the customs officers, the reallocation plans amount to an evasion of pertinent laws which entitle them to severance payments and to appeal against reallocation decisions. In mid-November, customs officers held protests at border crossings into Slovakia and the Czech Republic and threatened to work to rule.

The Ministry of Finance (Ministerstwo Finasów, MF) took a stand, addressing to the directors of the customs officers a letter in which it called for disciplinary measures against anybody who 'disrupts normal operation of the customs offices' and for notifications to the public prosecution service of what it holds to be an illegal protest.

Several days later, customs officers across Poland were forbidden to speak with reporters. Gazeta Wyborcza carried the following statement by one customs official: 'the ban refers to conversations'[with reporters] 'during working hours and in uniform, but it is clear that the idea is to shut us up altogether'. The deputy chair of FZZSC added that 'expedited procedures for disciplinary dismissal have been introduced, apart from which everyone is afraid that, in the event of active involvement in a protest, their name will be placed on the hit lists' (as customs officials refer to the reallocation lists).

In spite of this tense atmosphere, a compromise appears to be in the offing. In early December, representatives of FZZSC approached the Ministry of Finance with a proposal for talks. The primary demand of the customs officers is that the reallocation proceeds in keeping with the law. They are suggesting that customs officials should be eligible for the more favourable 'uniformed service pensions' and demanding that those Ministry of Finance employees who are responsible for what the unions hold to be illegal measures against their colleagues - ie the transfers to the eastern border and the suppression of protests - face disciplinary action. In one interview, the chair of FZZSC declared: 'we want all the customs officers to be ensured of a job and, if possible, to receive protection benefits similar to those afforded to other vocational groups, ie severance payments and funds for requalifying for other work.'

For the time being, the reaction of the Ministry of Finance remains unknown, but some parties claims that the protests by customs officials are premature and not necessarily warranted. According to one director of a customs office on Poland’s eastern border, 'the work conditions are identical ... and the residential problems can be solved ... the real allocation of officers will take place only in May of next year, and the personnel requirements in the east are very large.' The same official added that 'there is plenty of work for customs officers, which is more than you can say for other vocational groups'. So far, 160 customs officers have accepted the Ministry of Finance's transfer proposals, out of the 2,000 planned for.

The protests by customs officers constitute part of a wider wave of labour unrest affecting Poland in the final months of 2003 (PL0311102N). Certain aspects of the action, however, are unique, with 2,000 customs officers reluctant to work in another location pitted against what they regard as rash reactions by the government.

The problem of geographical mobility for workers does not apply only to customs officers. For many years, Polish employees have grown accustomed to a permanent place of work and, accordingly, of residence; for many, any move would be tantamount to severing all ties with their community. This is one of the complaints raised by the aggrieved customs officers. At the same time, customs officials find themselves in a relatively comfortable position, in that they are not threatened with actual job loss - a threat which looms large for many Polish employees.