Labour loopholes again exposed

Mmegi Editor | Wednesday February 17, 2016 12:24

While the nature of their businesses vary, the common vein in both developments is the apparent unrepresentative nature of the retrenchment process. Workers in both companies are not disputing the reasons for the retrenchments. In the trucking business, management has cited the loss of a key contract, while in the other, the contractor has lost a crucial contract at a nickel mine.

The reasons are sound, in so far as the information available would suggest. The trouble is the process.

In both cases, unions say management is dictating terms and not consulting or negotiating on the retrenchment process. Representatives of the workers are being left in the dark, limiting their ability to intercede on critical matters such as the retrenchment formula and provision of soft-landing initiatives such as counselling and up-skilling.

Unfortunately, these two incidents are merely the latest in what has become the daily bread of most workers across the country, particularly in the mining, retail and associated sectors.

Thanks to labour laws crafted primarily to attract and protect investors, as well as limitations in the Labour Inspectorate, many workers find themselves mortgaged to the goodwill of their managers whenever retrenchments or similar shake-ups occur.

In a year in which economic growth is due at one percent and going into another of great uncertainty, workers across Botswana should brace themselves for rising pressures on the sustainability of operations. It is egregious that while this country’s legislators have woven a watertight network of laws to guide and protect investors, few documents exist compelling them to safeguard the country’s most important resource - Batswana.

In mining for example, for an explorer to transform into a producer, they would need to prove a mineral resource, financial and technical prowess, social and environmental mitigations and decommissioning/rehabilitation strategies. Legislatively speaking, the developer is not required to enter into a union recognition agreement and many would, by their profit-driven nature, hold out as long as possible.

This scenario is yet another example of labour issues being treated like the illegitimate children in the tripartite social contract.

 In the non-mining sector, hundreds of thousands of workers in factories, the retail sector, travel, tourism and hospital, media and other sectors are not unionised and with no law compelling or at least advocating for these rights, employers are happy with the status quo.  Government representatives such as district labour officers cannot be expected to enforce non-existent laws to protect new workers. The buck rightfully stops with the legislators charged with enacting and amending labour laws.

A stitch in time saves nine.

Today’s thought

“Labour is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labour, and could never have existed if labour had not first existed. Labour is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” 

- Abraham Lincoln