Stimulate public servants Morale- BOPEU on ESP
Staff Writer | Monday November 23, 2015 11:55
In his reaction to the State of the Nation Address by President Ian Khama, BOPEU president Andrew Motsamai said the public workers who would be expected to implement the ESP need to be stimulated as their morale is low due to the worsening financial rewards by the employer.
“A pay increase to civil servants is justifiable and necessary, given that civil servants have not had productive salary increases in several years, and when there were increases, increases have been below the inflation rate and were just a mere token,” said Motsamai the leader of the largest single public sector union in Botswana.
BOPEU boosts an excess of about 31, 000 membership.
Motsamai said salary increases and improvement of conditions of service for the public service workers would boost the morale and motivation of government workers and therefore improving productivity and helping the implementers of the ESP, that is the workers, to focus. Motsamai said it would also boost the economy through growth in personal expenditure, which he describes as the consumption expenditure, the conduit through which government capital expenditure spreads throughout the economy.
“An increase would have spurned an economy reliant on consumer growth, which is an important and equal economic pillar to other Growth GDP growth inputs of exports, Foreign Direct Investment, investment by government and corporates. It would have also provided support to the struggling banking, insurance, property and retail markets. So a pay increase is a stimulus on its own, having positive effect even on the level of taxes collected by BURS.”
The BOPEU leader argued that salary increase would also create jobs, especially in sectors such as transport and leisure. “An upward salary adjustment would boost demand and keep momentum in the economy. It will put more money in the pockets of consumers who have already seen their disposable incomes being eroded by high food prices.”
“We are only in November, but we may be bracing ourselves for a serious drought despite recent rains.
Droughts come with increased food prices, given that South Africa, our main source of food, is also experiencing the same. This will make things even tougher for workers, the implementers of the ESP. How else are the hard working people of our country going to put food on the table without an increment? Quite often, our government ignores the fact that one nucleus family supports another extended family in our social set up. We really fear for families going forward.”