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– Free flow of smuggled goods

Summer is approaching and union leader Karin Tanderø Schaug is worried about border control.

– I can honestly say that large parts of the country are open. The consequences are the free flow of smuggled goods.

In mid-February Schaug told Dagbladet that the customs officers are ending at a furious pace.

– Since the last announcement, we have lost around 40-50 employees. The agency lags enormously in terms of pay and employees can no longer live on their salaries.

Need people in the field

The customs service was upgraded with NOK 800 million in equipment since 2013, but cuts in operations.

– Now the agency has a lot of great equipment, but we do not have the resources to “move out”. We sit with cameras all over the border and when we see something suspicious we have to let it go because we do not have people there.

The union leader talks about boats that remain in the quay, high traffic at Svinesund, the airports and the port of Oslo, and too low manning. At the same time, there will soon be a holiday break.

CONCERNED: Union leader Karin Tanderø Schaug in the Norwegian Customs Union.  Photo: Norwegian Customs Association

CONCERNED: Union leader Karin Tanderø Schaug in the Norwegian Customs Union. Photo: Norwegian Customs Association
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– If we do not have people out in the field, it is actually not possible to seize, says Schaug.

Organized crime crosses borders, with little likelihood of being stopped.

– Then we are not just talking about drugs and cigarettes. There are weapons, animals, plants, counterfeit brands. These are strategic goods in relation to Russia, Ukraine or other third countries.

On the run from the Customs

There are 850 employees who conduct border control, and the main reason why the customs officers quit is salary, according to the union leader.

– The agency lags enormously behind in terms of pay. We get jobs in, among others, the police, the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. Our expertise is very attractive for significantly higher salaries.

Schaug believes that 100-120 has ended since October 2021, and the lack of competence will not be covered.

– We can not match on salary, and those with agency education are not off the shelf, she says.

Schaug fears that if no action is taken by 2024, which is when the first newly graduated customs officers have received their diplomas, the Border Division will be halved.

The agency as a whole is as large as two years ago. It is in the Border Division that it has decreased significantly

Decisive role

Schaug was in a meeting with the Ministry of Finance where she presented her concerns. Now she comes with a clear message:

– The government must take responsibility for the obligations they gave to Hurdal. We need money earmarked for resources and wages, competitive wages. The agency must have budgets to be able to compete for the customs.

Now they are waiting for the budget for 2023. Schaug does not feel that the Storting takes into account the situation in the Customs. Both price cuts and the Storting’s cuts in government agencies are a cause for concern.

– The customs service is part of the total preparation for Norway. We have a crucial role with legal authority and responsibility that, for example, the police or the defense do not have.

Communications adviser, Helene Megaard, from the Ministry of Finance writes in an e-mail to Dagbladet:

– The customs service must, like all other agencies, at all times make priorities within the current framework. The Ministry understands that these priorities can be difficult.

Megaard also writes that the Customs has received new tools that will make control more effective, built up its own intelligence environment and focused on digitization.

Familiar with the dissatisfaction

Customs Director Øystein Børmer responds to the criticism in an e-mail to Dagbladet:

– I am well aware that over time there has been increasing dissatisfaction with wage levels among many customs graduates in the agency. This has been reinforced by the fact that the agency has implemented significant restructuring, reorganization of agency education and a number of changes.

CONFIRMS: Customs Director Øystein Børmer is well aware of the dissatisfaction with the salary level in the agency.  Photo: Bård Gudim / Customs

CONFIRMS: Customs Director Øystein Børmer is well aware of the dissatisfaction with the salary level in the agency. Photo: Bård Gudim / Customs
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Last year, they carried out a thorough survey of wage conditions in the Customs Service. The survey showed that a significant proportion of the agency’s customs graduates have a salary level that must be described as low compared with other occupational groups in the public sector, according to Børmer.

– After this, we have in two rounds carried out extraordinary wage negotiations, financed from our own operating budget, to correct imbalances that were revealed in the restructuring and to raise the salary somewhat for those with the lowest wages.

Børmer says that work has been initiated where they will look at the work situation and career opportunities for employees with the Customs’ agency education. Where the goal is to facilitate for the Customs to be a good workplace.

The director of customs experiences the dialogue with the union as good with a common understanding of reality.

– The agency’s budget framework is very tight, and increasingly tight. At the same time, task volumes increase.

He believes it will hardly be possible to implement further wage increases within the budget limits, without it further weakening border control, travelers and service to the business community.

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