BFTU�s Response To Minister Batshu�s Recent Utterances On The Tda Bill No. 21 Of 2015
Correspondent | Monday August 8, 2016 13:50
Minister Batshu is quoted as saying that the bill seeks to protect the economy by way of ensuring that all workers of Botswana are declared essential and therefore barred from taking part in strikes as a way to force employers to listen or accede to their demands for better working conditions. What the Minister is advocating for is a situation whereby workers in this country have been stripped of any rights to enable to them to improve their economic wellbeing and employers have been handed a license to exploit workers as they wish. This exploitation is led and perfected by the Government as the main employer in our economy. A Minister of Labour, whose other role is to regulate the labour market, is leading the assault on workers’ rights.
We are shocked by Minister Batshu’s position and new thinking because this is not what he portrayed all along when he engaged us (BFTU) and the Labour Advisory Board (LAB) on this matter. To the LAB Mr. Batshu has always appeared to be this understanding Minister who has the interest of workers at heart. He often vowed to ensure that conditions of employment, social protection, social dialogue and dispute resolution are his top priority. Mr. Batshu has led the Botswana delegation to the ILO a number of times where he made telling statements on how Botswana respects and protects the rights of workers. He has lobbied both employers and workers to support him as he endeavours to bring about change and improvement especially in the area of social dialogue.
Concerning the TDA Bill, it is clear that Mr. Batshu has been disingenuous all along to the social partners (employers and workers) and to the LAB. Whereas he took time and obviously spent resources claiming to be consulting parties, this was never in good faith. In all these consultations, at no time did the Minister indicate that the views that were put before him were unacceptable and not warranting consideration. To the contrary he portrayed a posture of understanding of our views and willingness to take them on board in the final draft Bill.
We are further concerned that although the Minister has gone ahead with provisions that will take away fundamental rights of workers, he has ignored any proposals that were made whose aims were to improve the wellbeing of workers. Such proposals include the amendment to include unfair labour practice, the introduction of an independent dispute resolution system and the introduction of a Labour Appeals Court. All these proposals could go a long way to improve our industrial relations system, leading to industrial peace, productivity and economic prosperity. It is clear in Minister Batshu we have a man who is bent to reverse the gains we have made in our industrial relations system and policies since independence. These are the very gains that propelled Botswana to an upper-middle income country.
The effects of the passing of the TDA Bill will be daunting to say the least. First and foremost, by enacting the Bill Botswana will be violating the ILO Convention 87 on the Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize. This is the legal instrument that grants workers to freely conduct their affairs without interference from employers or the authorities, which activities include but not limited to how they can engage employers in furtherance of their demands. The ILO has recognized industrial action or strike as one of those activities workers can freely engage in to further their interests. Section 46 of the TDA Bill with its long list of essential services seeks to take away this right from workers. This section does not deal with the civil service but the whole economy.
Secondly, the proposed section 46 goes against the adopted ILO definition on essential services. According to the ILO definition essential services are those that when not carried out they will endanger the lives or health of a population or part of it. The list in section 46 includes services such broadcasting, immigration, customs, teaching, diamond cutting and polishing and all other services necessary for the carrying out of these services. Virtually all services will become essential along the value chains.
The result of the above enactment is that strikes by any worker is banned in Botswana. It further means that the only leverage workers use to force employers to listen to them is taken away and therefore worker organizations are rendered ineffective and useless. By extension trade unions are outlawed. Unions, Strikes and Collective bargaining are part and parcel of any modern industrial democratic dispensation. When the system of collective bargaining is undermined or destroyed, as Minister Batshu seeks to do, the result will be bottled-up discontent which could explode anytime to destabilise industrial relations, such as we witnessed at Marikana, South Africa in 2012. Rather than protect the economy, Mr Batshu’s Bill is in effect the very threat to the economy.
As a member of the ILO and having ratified all the ILO Core Conventions, Botswana led by Minister Batshu cannot go against the ideals they have affirmed at international level. What is shocking is that Minister Batshu is a sitting member of the ILO Governing Body, the executive council of the ILO which makes decisions on policies used to govern the activities of the organization across the world. It is his responsibility to advice his colleagues at Cabinet and Parliament about these obligations and the need to ensure that Botswana remains true to them. However, now he is saying the opposite.
The BFTU rejects the TDA Bill as we have always said in its current form, as it misrepresents what was discussed at the LAB and goes aginst international standards we have adopted. We therefore call upon all Members of Parliament to do the right and honourable thing - reject Mr. Batshu’s Bill to save our country the embarrassment it will face should this Bill go through. As the competent authority Parliament has a duty to protect the obligations our country has made at international level. With this draconian law Botswana will definitely join the list of rogue states which undermine workers’ rights. If this Bill becomes law it would become another blot in our democratic credentials and the current government would go down as one which caused such regression.
Our Parliament cannot seat idle and allow a Minister to derail the nation and plunge it into an industrial relations crisis. It is thousands of Batswana workers who stand to suffer should this Bill be passed. Botswana workers have voted members of parliament with the expectation that they will rescue them from situations as these.
Gadzani Mhotsha (Mr.)
Secretary General