THE?National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) wants the 20 per cent tax imposed on travel allowances for public servants to be removed or altered.
General secretary Dennis Clarke and president Walter Maloney told the DAILY?NATION?last night, following a meeting with concerned public workers, that the tax, announced in Government’s November 2010 Budgetary Proposals, had created hardship for over 7 000 workers.
Clarke pointed out that postal workers, police officers, environmental health workers and others who were receiving fixed travel allowances, on a monthly basis, ranging between $481 and $293, were the ones most affected by the deduction.
And quoting from Section 112A of the Constitution which states that Government should not alter salaries and allowances of public servants to their disadvantage, he asked: “Is this not a disadvantage?”
He stated that because the travel was capped, workers could find themselves doing more travel than counterparts who were reimbursed on how much mileage they incurred.
“While we understand Government’s fiscal position, we believe Government has to relook the fixed travelling and see how best it can work,” Clarke said, while pointing out that the NUPW would put certain alternative proposals to Government.
He said that while the Government had attempted to appease the workers by saying that the deductions would be added to their pensionable emoluments, he argued that this would occur in the future.
In addition, Clarke said the recent increase in petrol was a “double whammy” for the workers.
“Government has reduced the travelling allowance, but yet the increase in petrol also increases the cost of travelling. Right now workers are experiencing a 50 per cent reduction in travelling rates,” he stated.
Maloney said that the reduction had affected several workers across the board and pointed out that the number of workers who received fixed travel allowances below $500 was greater than those who received about $900.
“There are a lot of public servants who earn $293 in travel allowance. That tax is going to hit them really hard. We need to look at how we are going to be able to diminish
the hardship on those persons at the lower end.”
Maloney said workers treated the allowance as part of their salary and had received mortgages and other loans based on the inclusion of that money. He said it had become problematic now that they had lost someof that money.
The NUPW?officials said they were hoping to have the meeting with the Government within the next two weeks, adding that Government had been receptive to the union discussing the matter.
However, the union said it did not believe that the Government had done enough research on how the taxing of the allowance would have affected public workers.
