Nyeletso lehuma officers decry unfair labour practices
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday July 10, 2023 06:00
BLLAHWU this week, through Moahi Attorneys, served a statutory notice to the Attorney General to prepare a lawsuit against the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Ministry of State President on the dispute at hand.
The union through its secretary-general, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa had on March 21 delivered a letter to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of State President and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Entrepreneurship. In the said letter, the union wrote that following the grievances raised by the Poverty Eradication Officers regarding their contractual issues, a resolution was made to extend their contracts from one to two years and upgrading of positions of tenured staff to Cl grade.
“We noticed that in implementing the said resolution, there were some inconsistencies as some officers were notched at C3, others at Cl and others leapfrogged from C4 to C2.
This on its own contradicted the principle of equal job equal pay and further defeats the principle of seniority as newly appointed officers are now paid more than the experienced officers,” Motshegwa wrote “We note that officers were promised that the anomaly will be corrected but such has not happened as officers are still disgruntled and being tossed from pillar to post.
It must further be noted that the resolution or promise made also brought about legitimate expectation on the part of those affected that the anomaly will be corrected.” The union held that according similarly circumstanced employees different treatment violates Section 7(c) and 7(e) of the Public Service Act in that those who are given lower salary scales are being treated unfairly and being discriminated against. “Such conduct is thus clearly unlawful and if we are compelled to litigate on this issue, which we hope we will not be and the employer will correct the anomaly, the conduct of the employer will be held to be unlawful,” said the union.
It is the view of BLLAHWU that the matter reflects a bad precedence of employer- employee relations and also raises a question mark on the Job Evaluation component as to whether the jobs have been profiled and graded or the grading is discretionary, which will clearly be unlawful as it would mean the test applied is subjective as opposed to being objective.
“It is based on the above and the principle of fairness buttressed by section 7 (c) of the Public Service Act No. 30 of 2008, that we humbly request your esteemed office to intervene and upgrade the officers and pay arrears accordingly. We hope you appreciate the seriousness of this matter, and you will act accordingly,” Motshegwa added.
Upon noting failure by the Permanent Secretaries to provide response, on April 26, the union declared a dispute before the Commissioner of Labour for alternative dispute resolution on the matter, and indicated that it will issue a date, once a mediator has been appointed. Noting that there is delay at the Commissioner of Labour, the union served a statutory notice to the Attorney General to prepare a lawsuit.
Through the notice, BLLAHWU through their attorneys demand that the said anomalies be corrected within a period of 30 days and client affected members be paid their salary arrears thereto.
“In the event of refusal to accede to our demands herein, we hold instructions to approach court after elapse of 30 days to seek declaratory orders that will compel the employer to correct the anomalies and act within the confines of the law,” Chabuya Lowani of Moahi Attorneys stated.