General Employer Trade Union of Seychelles reacts to Budget 2020 |21 November 2019
Getus deplores lack of consultation with concerned parties
The General Employer Trade Union of Seychelles (Getus) has called for additional consultation between government and representatives of the private sector to review the impact of Budget 2020 and to find the best solution that will create a win-win situation for all concerned parties.
Getus said this in its response to Budget 2020 presented by the Minister for Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning Maurice Loustau-Lalanne on October 31, 2019.
Getus’ response is as follows:
“Since the foundation of the General Employer Trade Union of Seychelles (Getus) it has been a continuous series of negotiations and follow ups with the respective authorities in the Seychelles government with regard to ease the way of doing business for the small and medium entrepreneurs. Getus’ mission is to bring together the private sector from across the Seychelles to ease the business and to reduce barriers to investment and sustainable growth.
Getus has always striven and fought for the well being of all Seychellois entrepreneurs; when the street vendor needed support, Getus stepped in, when the contractor had many issues with the quota system, Getus stepped in, for the new labour migration policy Getus with other representatives of the private sector delivered a series of issues raised by the private sector and we are still in the negotiation as the policy that was presented does not fully represent what was discussed during the various negotiations with the tripartite forums.
Position of Getus (Private Sector)
- 8.7 Annual Leave: All workers get 21 days as annual leave. Government has decided that from January 2020, annual leave will be 24 days. The private sector is against this amendment in the Employment Act. The private sector was not consulted on this specific amendment which will directly impact on the small/medium and big businesses. The loss on productivity, increasing the cost of operation will reflect on the service delivered to the public.
- 8.11 New Category of GOP: The increment of the GOP fees in all areas was once again implemented without the consultation of the private sector. In addition, for any bilateral agreements regarding foreign manpower, in which the government of Seychelles will engage through the Ministry of Employment, Immigration and Civil Status (MEICS), the private sector would like to make a suggestion: to include a bond insurance to be purchased by the employee in his/her country of origin to cover the repatriation in case where he/she will not be up to the standards on his/her professional skills, major injuries, death, or breach of employment agreement. To consider that in case where recognised PEA’s will be use for the employment, the agency will be responsible to cover such expenses.
3. Minimum Wage: the increment of the minimum wage came on top of a series of increment in the employer’s administrative cost. This year there were a series of increment in the administrative fees for an employer:
a. GOP application fees
b. GOP renewal fees
c. Advertising procedures for GOP applications
d. New Sugar Tax
e. New Alcohol policy, etc.
Due to the list of increment in the administrative operations fees for a small and medium enterprise, and now with the increment of the minimum wage from R34.97 to R38.27 per hour for all workers other than casual, and the raise on casual worker rate from R40.30 to R44.10 per hour, the cost of living will perhaps increase, no doubt a business will need to recover the costs, and this will be passed on to the customer.
Did the government consider the situation whereby a worker that will work overtime or on public holidays will impose an increment of more than 50% on the employer? Those decisions were taken without any consultations with the private sector.
4. Revised vehicle levy: With regard to the revised levy for business vehicles, this was decided without any consultation. The impact once again will be on the direct cost of administration for small and medium enterprises, which will make the everyday operation more difficult financially as 2020 will have a blast of additional costs not planned for the next upcoming fiscal year.
5. Subvention: This year once again, Getus applied for subvention to sustain its work to support the private sector. A series of projects are ready to the benefit of the small and medium businesses, but unfortunately, there were no allocation of funds in the 2020 governmental budget.
Getus, SCCI and ASE are the three representatives of the private sector, the voice of the Seychellois business man and woman and there was no consultation with these three entities when those drastic measures were taken. This change will impact directly on the everyday life of all Seychellois and Seychellois families. Yes, the employee will benefit with salary increment that is good. But the business will have to recover such expenses and it will be passed on to the customers.
The government should have taken into consideration all aspects of the economy, and its impact on the businesses. To be able to reduce the cost of living, the government should take into consideration not only increasing salaries but also to ease the way of doing business for the small, medium and large enterprises. For example, the tender process is always focusing on the lower bidder, which will be always awarded to big companies with a large capital. Small and medium enterprises will not be able to compete due to the high cost of the raw material, the labour cost and the administrative costs.
Getus would like to call for an additional consultation with government, SCCI, ASE to review the impact of this budget and to find the best solution that will create a win-win situation for all the interested parties.”
General Employer Trade Union of Seychelles