Gov’t told to commit to bargaining council revival
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Tuesday January 25, 2022 06:00
“The committee is concerned at the slow pace of the resuscitation of the PSBC and the lack of commitment to bring this matter to finality,” read the committee’s report from its 58th meeting.
The Committee revealed it had enquired from the accounting officer, Public Service Management’s (DPSM) Samuel Rathedi, on what the status was regarding the revival of the PSBC and when the process would conclude since it has been dragging on.
“The Accounting Officer in his response stated that there have been delays due to disagreements on certain aspects such as how decisions of the PSBC would be made (i.e. consensus or majority vote) and representation (whether members can belong to more than one union). He indicated that there was no set deadline regarding the matter,” stated the report.
The Committee added that government should show commitment towards the resuscitation of the PSBC by treating the matter with the urgency it deserves. They said it was an important tool, which enables tripartite cooperation and promotes harmonious labour relations.
The PSBC has been non-existent since 2015 after government decided to stop it. However, President Mokgweetsi Masisi has on several occasions made promises to revive the bargaining council, but nothing is yet to come to materialise. This has raised suspicions over government’s attitude towards resuscitating the PSBC.
Last year, the Botswana Federation of Public Private & Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) threatened to take government to court over its failure to ensure the revival of the PSBC.
Meanwhile, the PAC also raised concern over critical shortage of staff in some sectors such as health and education, which they said could be a result of government’s intention to reduce the wage bill.
However, the Committee said although there has been talk of the ballooning wage bill for a number of years it does not look like the DPSM as the employer has given serious thought to the issue.
“There has to be discussion and engagement on the wage bill to ensure that decisions on the wage bill are informed by a holistic analysis of all the underlying factors that affect the wage bill and its composition,” read the report.
“The critical shortage of staff in some sectors like Health, Education etc. should not be exacerbated by the desire to reduce the wage bill,” it added.