Ericsson retrenchments unsettle BOFEPUSU
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday May 29, 2020 18:34
About 20 of Ericsson (AB Botswana) workers are locked in a tug of war with management over their ‘unfair dismissal’ that the Department of Labour has been called to arbitrate.
The case was supposed to have been heard on April 29, 2020, but was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The dispute comes after the company gave the employees notice of retrenchment early this year.
It is said that the employees are part of staff adopted by Ericsson from Orange Botswana back in 2014 when the two organisations signed a contract for management and field maintenance of Orange Botswana’s network infrastructure.
Information passed on to Mmegi suggests that the company then informed the workers of the impending retrenchment, as its contract with Orange Botswana had not been renewed.
The contract is set to expire in August 2020. However, the dispute emerged between the employees and their employer over the retrenchment package proposition.
Some of the issues emanating from the dispute include non-disclosure of information, failure to agree on negotiation rules and non-compliance with retrenchment processes. BOFEPUSU deputy secretary Ketlhalefile Motshegwa told Mmegi on Tuesday that the federation had scheduled a meeting for Thursday with the management of Ericsson to discuss the matter.
“Furthermore, BOFEPUSU has reported Ericsson Botswana to the Commissioner of Labour for inspection of their state of labour relations. The federation is generally concerned with the increasing number of retrenchments in the country, most of which are reckless and not genuine, and the whole problem is that workers are thrown to unemployment and poverty,” Motshegwa said.
BOFEPUSU has also called on government through the Ministry of Employment Productivity and Skills Development to be wary of pitiless companies engaged in unfair labour practices and for it to protect the workers.