BOPEU ready to engage gov’t on minimum wage
Larona Makhaiza | Wednesday November 19, 2025 06:01
Leaders of the local labour union argue that recent assertions by President Duma Boko on terms being agreed for the minimum wage were ‘unjust’ and disadvantage public service employees. UDC had promised a P4, 000 minimum wage during its campaign trail.
The Directorate of Public Service Management has been critiqued for adopting a model that will inflate salaries to minimum wage through allowances rather than a basic pay. Critics and organised labour opine this will deprive workers of long term financial security.
BOPEU secretary-general, Ketlhapeleng Karabo, said the union is ready to push for meaningful negotiations with government in an effort to arrive at a ‘fair and minimum wage.’ He emphasised that the minimum wage should reflect the actual needs of workers and the rising cost of living of their everyday lives. “We want to negotiate with the government for a fair and genuine minimum wage, not the one inflated by allowances,” Karabo told a media briefing this week.
“We are calling for proper basic salary that qualifies employees for pension.” The secretary-general stressed that reforming the wage structure was overdue and critical to restoring dignity for the working class. According to BOPEU, the planned remuneration which is set to be implemented by July 2026, forces employees to rely heavily on allowances to make up for low basic salaries. This, Karabo argues, leaves the workers vulnerable upon retirement as allowances do not contribute to pension calculations. Parallel to the assertion that government has reached an agreement with the 5+1 trade unions, the secretary-general said that showed that government has not met the living wage threshold of P4 000, making survival increasingly difficult for low income earners. “We are clear that the government has not met the living wage of P4, 000. “Salary increment should not be tied to the cost of company,” he said emphasising that those affordability arguments should not be used to suppress wages.
He stated the union body will continue mobilising its members and expects government to enter negotiations in good faith, adding that workers should not be blamed for demanding compensation that matches the realities of the current economic issues.