Manual Workers challenge DCEC in court

Staff Writer | Thursday March 6, 2014 17:53

Last month NALCGPWU otherwise known as Manual Workers Union notified the Attorney General of its intention to sue after the DCEC management instructed workers to resign from the union. Since December 2013 the union has been receiving resignation letters from members who are DCEC employees. This is as a result of the new section 5C of the Corruption and Economic Crime Act, 2013. The new section forbids DCEC employees to become union members.

“This provision is an unreasonable limitation of our client’s right to organise at the DCEC and it is a violation of section 13 (1) of the Constitution of Botswana...” wrote attorney Tshiamo Rantao on behalf of the union. Rantao also said the new DCEC section is an unjustifiable limitation of the right to join a union of one’s choice. He added said it also flies in the face of the provisions of the more relevant Acts of Parliament.

“The new law also flies in the face of the positions taken by the International Labour Organisation Committee of Experts and Committee on Freedom of Association. Employees of the DCEC cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be one of the internationally recognised exemptions to the right to belong to a trade union.”

Rantao said it makes little legal sense that employees of Botswana Defence Force (BDF) and Botswana Police Service (BPS) can be permitted to unionise and yet there is a blanket prohibition for all DCEC employees including cleaners and drivers. Moreover, the new section violates the DCEC employees’ right to non-discrimination, which is provided for under section 15 of the Constitution because similarly placed employees enjoy the right to unionise.   The Attorney General has not yet responded to the statutory  notice from the union.