Goodwill key to BURS ceasefire

Mmegi Editor | Tuesday August 4, 2015 14:39

The BURS has reportedly told its striking employees that it is awaiting feedback from government on any possible new offer, while workers have indicated that they are willing to accept the six percent on offer if the employer also includes allowances that the general civil service received from government in April.

It is important to note that statutorily, the BURS is not a government department and has not been a government department since August 2004, having been formed as a parastatal by the BURS Act of 2003. The BURS has employment contracts and a relationship with its employees removed from what is prevailing in the civil service.

Through tax reforms made in 2011, the revenue agency has enjoyed the right to retain three percent of the revenues it collects for capital and operational expenses.

The reforms, however, have not meant an end to taxpayer-funded subventions, as government pumped P309.1 million into the agency’s coffers in 2012/13 for budgetary support.

The fruits of this tax reform and new found measure of financial discipline were feted last June when the revenue agency broke ground for its new P542 million headquarters under construction in the Central Business District.

And yet less than a year later, wage negotiations within the same newly empowered organisation have broken down so irretrievably as to force the first strike in the BURS’ history.

It would appear that BURS’ intransigence in this matter is a direct result of the influence of its sole shareholder, government. Government’s hand can be seen in BURS proposing the same six percent awarded to civil servants in April and then refusing to move from that position despite the union’s yielding ground.

It is government as sole shareholder that is pulling the strings behind the scenes, which then begs the question of whether any attention has been paid to what the BURS can actually afford, its financial forecasts and future stability.

Government, as the BURS’ sole shareholder, needs to balance the national interest of an efficient, organised and self-managing revenue collection agency, against its tendency to over-shoot its mandate as a shareholder and reach into employer-employee relations within statutory parastatals.

BURS workers have now lost nine days’ wages, which will no doubt burn holes in the very same salaries they were attempting to boost.

Today’s thought

“What workers demand is a fair share of “the cake” and not “the whole “cake” as most of the time is the employers’ attitude.”

- Botswana Federation of Trade Unions