BMWU settles, albeit grudgingly with BCL
Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday September 26, 2014 14:41
BMWU spokesperson, Joseph Tsimako, said that they would be grappling with BCL next year on the issue of housing allowance, which they believe is still very low.
The next wage negotiations are scheduled to start the following April. “It (the housing allowance) is very low, yet it is supposed to be a mitigation measure, while the project to modify hostel accommodation is on the table. “This will be our bone of contention next year when negotiations start,” he added.
Otherwise, BMWU has now set aside its decision to embark on an industrial strike and boycott of the general elections next month following last week’s wage dispute resolution.
Confirming this, Tsimako said they were happy that the dispute has finally been resolved and that it took a lot of bending over backwards between the two parties to finally reach the agreement.
“We have announced to our members to go and vote in large numbers. We advised them to vote wisely for the political party that has workers’ interests at heart,” he said.
BMWU and BCL mine settled the dispute on September 15, after agreeing on a six percent increase across the board on basic salaries for the employees on job grades P1 to A03 with effect from April this year.
They also agreed on a pay structure review to be undertaken in accordance with the terms of reference and the project plan to be developed by a joint task team in which the parties will be represented by an equal number of representatives. “The terms of reference and the project plan for embarking on the review of the pay structure shall be developed and agreed upon by end of December this year.
“BCL also committed itself to gradually adjusting the annual bonus from the current five percent to 8.33 percent of annual basic salary over a period of three years from the date of agreement,” said Tsimako.
He added that the company would also in the next five years, subject to availability of funds, renovate and modify hostels into studio type of accommodation to phase out the current communal facilities. “We are happy with the management that finally we reached a compromise on the matter, even though we have not resolved some key issues,” said Tsimako.
He added that they have suggested to BCL to approach Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) to build more houses that will be allocated to mine employees.
“Those who can afford their rentals can occupy them and avail the current ones to lower cadres to address shortage of accommodation. This would afford mine employees an opportunity to purchase houses from BHC,” he said.
Though he was happy that the marathon wage negotiations have finally been resolved, he attributed the lengthy process to the management’s attitude that he said resulted in petitions. “This is not good and resulted in a possibility of a strike that usually comes with negative consequences for either employees or the employer,” he said.