BMWU moves on as wage talks end

Patricia Edwin | Thursday June 19, 2014 16:39

TNMC public relations manager Tebogo Rapitsenyane said that their management has decided that the protracted wage negotiations with Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) have been concluded. “The parties had been locked in negotiations since May 2013 and that included a series of both private and government mediations,” he stated.

He said that on June 2 the parties concluded their negotiations with a multi-year agreement on salaries and conditions of service for two financial years of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.

“An agreement for a salary increment of six percent for bargaining employees (the non-managerial staff and/or union members) was made effective in April 2014,” Rapitsenyane said.

He added that separate from the six percent agreement, a 4.5 percent salary adjustment was awarded to employees outside the scope of union representation.

He further said that the mine would continue to collectively engage the union on all key matters hinging on conditions of employment and other business matters.

BMWU Secretary General Bob Malele said that they have been in dispute with the mine for a while but after weighing the issues as the union, they decided to come to an agreement with the mine.

“We did not want to find ourselves in court,” he said.

He said that the union also looked at the situation on the ground at the mine such as production issues and they decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. 

“The workers decided to close the issue for this year and take the deal because there is always next year when we negotiate again,” he said.

He said that what they do not like as the union is that in the end there are two salary increments, such as the 4.5 percent and the six percent, but when they propose salary hikes they would be hoping that all people would benefit.

“Employees should all benefit the same if there are salary negotiations going on regardless of whether they are in the bargaining council or not,” he said.

He said that there are no longer issues of a strike looming amongst them at the mine. He added that the reason they agreed to the resolution was that as the union they want to look forward to the rest of the year and the next.

“We believe in going forward and see what happens. We have encouraged people to work, reducing running costs and production at the mine as we go forward,” he said.