Judge postpones BOFEPUSU, Khama case
Oarabile Mosikare | Tuesday April 15, 2014 13:58
In his short ruling, Leburu said the parties should prepare for two critical matters in the case. These are the legislative status of the Public Sector Bargaining Council (PSBC) and if the application is properly before the judge.
Respondents, attorney David Moloise appearing with Nchunga Nchunga and Ditto Molodi, argued that on April 7, 2014, they were served with the application and had been busy consulting with their principals.
“On Friday we were served with amendment papers redefining the case before the court,” said Moloise adding that it was their intention to object to the new notice of motion.
He submitted that the Khama statement in question was made on April 3, 2014 and the applicants filed their papers the following day.
“Subsequently, the statement was made public on April 7, 2014 in the Daily News. They have known about this since April 3, 2014.
They could have picked it up immediately considering the gravity of the matter. The prejudice is obvious. We are now answering a completely new case,” submitted Moloise.
For the applicants, attorney Joseph Akoonyatse with Mboki Chilisa conceded that they served the respondents late on Friday. Two days later they served the replying affidavit on Moloise himself.
“No objection was registered. If the objection was registered we could have given them time to consult their principals. Their argument is valid,” said Akoonyatse.
In this application, BOFEPUSU wants the court to stop Khama and Morupisi from making unilateral statements concerning government’s bargaining position pending an action for final relief declaring the respondents’ conduct unlawful. The federation is also seeking an order to restrain the two or any person acting under their instruction from making further distribution of the Directive No. 1 of 2014.
The federation argued that it is a requirement of the law that all bargaining parties enter dialogue in good faith. It avers that the President and the DPSM director have acted in disregard of their duty to bargain in good faith and in violation of rules of conduct governing negotiations. “The first respondent [Khama] has resorted to making it known what the government’s final position is in respect of the 2014/15 negotiations, before the bargaining parties could commence in earnest,” read the BOFEPUSU application.
BOFEPUSU averred that Khama has indicated in public that the government will offer a maximum of only four percent salary increment and no more.
“The first respondent has gone further to state that any attempt by the applicant trade unions will serve only to delay the inevitable and that any delay at reaching agreement (basically accepting the four percent offer) will be at the detriment of members of the applicant unions since the Government will not make any retrospective payment of the salary increment,” stated BOFEPUSU papers.
It continued: “The above utterances by the first respondent were made inter alia at a Kgotla meeting at the village of Kachikau on March 26, 2014. Media reports of the same statements were subsequently aired on government radio station (RB1) and national television station (Btv) news.
The second respondent [Morupisi] has issued a public communication on ‘Salary Adjustment to Certain Public Officers’ in terms whereof the second respondent amongst others communicates the government’s proposal regarding the conditions of service for public servants which has been tabled for and is yet to be negotiated by the PSBC.”
The case continues next week Tuesday.