A fortnight ago, Mogae urged BMWU to halt their proposed strike last week and the union heeded the call BMWU had threatened to down tools because of a deadlock over the pay increase after lengthy negotiations. Initially the union demanded a salary increment of 30 percent while Debswana proposed four percent. After protracted negotiations, management settled for a final conditional offer of 10 percent. But the union rejected the offer and presented their final conditional offer of 16 percent across the board for all employees in the bargaining unit.
The union demanded that management should increase production bonus by 25 percent calculated at the employee’s annual basic salary. However, the management was willing to offer a bonus of only five percent plus a housing allowance for the employees who are not housed by the mine. The allowance ranged from P400 to P1 100 per month depending on the marital status and grade of the employee.
Given the above differences, the two parties brought the Commissioner of Labour, Claude Mojafi into the fray last month. But Mojafi could not harmonise the divergent interests of the two parties and declared that his mediation had failed. After this, he gave the two parties an option of arbitration, which the union rejected in favour of the strike. The issue was further dragged before the Industrial Court when Mogae intervened.
Presidential spokesman, Dr Jeff Ramsay confirmed to Monitor over the weekend that the President intervened in the matter. “It should be clear that the President was not imposing anything on the two parties. He believed that there was a reason to open negotiations and he urged them to go and talk,” he explained.
BMWU Jwaneng branch chairman, Jack Tlhagale, said the President agreed with the union that its members had been cheated on the issue of bonuses. He said members were not given any bonuses this year while management lined their pockets with bonuses of between P80 000 and P120 000. He said in an impromptu meeting held on Friday that the management put the final offer of 10 percent bonus on basic annual salary, but did not adjust its salary increment proposal, which still stands at 10 percent. BMWU executive committee members have gone for further consultations with their branches. At the time of going to press, the Jwaneng branch had mandated the union for further negotiations with the management and agreed to abort the strike.
The General Manager of Jwaneng mine could not deny or confirm the allegations of the offer. “Our intention is to continue negotiating with the union and I can’t divulge any details now except to say that we are seeking an amicable solutions,” he said.
The company’s Employee Relations Manager, Jacob Sesinyi who confirmed the offer, said, it was not imposed on the union.
“We were ready for negotiations, but the union insisted that we put the offer on the table hence the 10 percent, which they acknowledged. We also put forward the proposal that in future, bonuses should be based on Performance Management System (PMS) because it is transparent, rewards performance, promotes efficiency and productivity, not a size fits all,” he explained. Currently, only the management is under the PMS.
