Labour unions turn up the heat on UDC gov’t
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Monday October 27, 2025 12:30
The government and 5+1 CTU concluded their negotiations on Monday, marking an end to an unprecedented six months journey marred by litigation along the way. The negotiations between the parties began in May 20 this year, and ended on October 21, a record period of negotiations in Botswana according to the unions’ leaders.
When briefing the members of the media on Tuesday, the unions’ leaders accused government of lack of political willingness to negotiate in good faith. They said the employer party displayed a careless attitude and disrespect towards the union party throughout the negotiations. The union leaders warned that if the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) does not change its attitude towards the unions, it could meet the same fate that befell its predecessor, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP).
The chief negotiator for the Union Party, Robert Rabasimane said despite the DPSM Director, Gaone Macholo’s remarks on national broadcaster, Btv that the negotiations went well, that was not the case.
“The just-ended negotiations were not easy and not peaceful. There was no honesty and were (negotiations) characterised by disrespect for unions. It is not true that the negotiations were smooth and went well. First thing, once you conclude, you issue a joint statement, that did not happen because we did agree. We also have to do a joint media brief, which we did not agree to because we were going to speak in different tongues. Things are not okay. The employer o re tlhobogantse le maloko a rona (The employer has pitted us against the union members)” Rabasimane said.
He pointed out that they said the collective agreement without prejudice because they believed that workers’ interest must come first. “We gave the employer the latitude to implement what they wish and want to do for their workers, but that’s not a negotiated agreement,” he added.
Rabasimane said they were also shocked by Macholo’s comments that the parties have also agreed not to discuss the 2% intra grade differentials, saying the union party withdrew the matter from the negotiation agenda because government was not willing to negotiate on it. “We removed it from the negotiation agenda because we want to pursue the litigation process. We believe it is a matter of right not negotiation. We realised governemnt had no interest to listen to us in this matter,” he explained. He said government has adopted the divide-and-rule strategy, which is meant to kill collective bargaining.
'We signed because we wanted peace. We did not give up but wanted our members to get whatever benefits the employer has decided to give them,' he added.
Deputy negotiator, Tobokani Rari said the 5+1 CTU represent above 135 000 public servants, a number that should be regarded as quite significant and whose interests should be considered during salary and conditions of service negotiations.
Rari reiterated Rabasimane's remarks indicating that this year's negotiations were characteresed by a toxic environment, acrimony and bad faith.
'For the first time I have seen such an acrimonious environment, worse than the 2011 negotiations which resulted in the mother of all strikes. Even after the strike, I have never seen such an acrimonious negotiations. What could have brought this acrimony? What broke the camel's back was when the other union broke away from the bloc and government goes to reach an agreement with it using a replica of what we were discussing. Things got out of the way. If that never happened, we would have long signed and reached an agreement. At the time we differed on very things. They withdrew the permutations with us and took them to sign with the breakaway union,' he said.
Rari said government actions were meant to prefix the negotiations with the other unions. 'The employer should have learnt that playing a game of divide and rule brings acrimony. It took us a very long time to rebuild conducive labour relations after the 2011 strike and it seems government has not taken lessons and wants to repeat what happened in 2011,' Rari said. Rari explained that among the contested issues include the 2% intra grade differentials. He said government was agreed with the unions that a good number of employees are to be paid back arrears of the non maintenance of the 2% intra grade differentials but wanted the unions to forego the issue.
'Government agreed with us that there has been a distortion. They calculated that the arrears owed to employees was around P8 billion. We told them that we understand the magnitude of the budget that is needed, but we want to negotiate on how it would be paid, but the employer party said they want us to do away with the issue. We took the matter out of the table and decided we can deal with it in a different matter contrary to what the DPSM director said,' he explained.
Another issue, Rari said, was inflationary adjustment of 3%, which the union said is not even equivalent to the rate of inflation. He said they also proposed a 17% adjustment on allowances that are not salary tied because the allowances have been stagnant for some time.
On the issue of minimum wage or wage floor, Rari explained that they believe that minimum wage should be basic salary only. 'The lowest government employee earns P2800. We believe they should be raised to P4000 as the UDC government promised in their election manifesto. We differed on interpretation because they want to calculate minimum wage as basic salary plus allowances. They said they will use Housing and Upkeep allowance to augment the basic salary. We didn’t agree on that definition because in our view, minimum wage refers to basic salary, without allowances. It doesn’t help the employee on social safety net like pension, allowances also don’t add to employee’s credit worthiness,' he explained.
Veteran unionist, Johnson Motshwarakgole warned that UDC could follow the BDP path and lose power if it continues in this manner. He said they removed BDP for UDC because the latter presented itself as a human rights centred alternative government.
'We are the ones who voted in this government. We removed the BDP and voted in the UDC believing that its government for human rights. One of the things that are considered even by the ILO is that trade human rights are human rights, We should see that the UDC is a human rights government by its deeds. If UDC doesn't change, they'll start saying labour movement is not fair. They are starting a serious war against trade unions, which won't end well. Political parties are fragile, I know that when we say this they feel attacked. Former president Khama's government escaped our wrath by a whisker. In his last term, they ruled by minority,' Motshwarakgole said.
Meanwhile, in a statement released on Monday, the parties say they have agreed that the leave travel concession due dates that have been distorted should be restored to the dates of employment anniversary, that the years of qualification for children will be reduced from seven (7) years to five (5) years in line with Public Transport Regulations. The parties also agreed to disagree on the issue of P4, 000.00 minimum wage/living wage as the government proposed increases of P653.00 for A3-A2 and P400 for A1-D1.
On the other hand, the union party maintains that government must raise the floor of Public Service pay to P4, 000.00/month as basic salary to enable workers to have access to pension payout and to be credit worthy.
While Parties differed on the issue of the quantum of upgrading the housing and upkeep allowance, the Union Party has given the employer the latitude to implement their adjustment proposal to members of the Five (5)+1 Cooperating Trade Unions effective April 1, 2025.