Public service salary negotiations resume

Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday October 17, 2016 20:13

 

It was agreed last Thursday, in a PSBC executive committee meeting, that salary negotiations would be among the pertinent issues to be thrashed out.

In a letter to all PSBC members and deputy chairpersons of the trade union employer parties, PSBC secretary general, Patla Ulaula wrote that a special council meeting will be held on the afternoon of October 27, exclusively to  deliberate on the outstanding public service salary negotiations and embark on the required preparations.

The PSBC secretary general also said that from 9am on the same day set for negotiations the PSBC will hold its fourth Annual General Meeting (AGM), which is expected to elect new office bearers including the new chairperson, following the expiry of Tseletse Fantan’s tenure as chair.

The PSBC’s invitation to its stakeholders for salary talks  put to an end questions as to whether the negotiations would ever continue.  This, especially after Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU), the trade union party in the PSBC, had taken government to court  over the unilateral three percent salary increment of public service workers in April.

However, the PSBC preferred to heed the Court of Appeal ruling in the BOFEPUSU vs BOPEU case, which recommended salary negotiations to begin as soon as either BOFEPUSU,  or Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU), or both, qualified to enter into the  PSBC. The PSBC’s surging ahead with salary talks also means that the negotiations would not be interrupted by any outside party.

Speaking The Monitor sister publication, Mmegi on Friday, BOPEU secretary general, Topius Marenga was quoted as saying BOPEU was in no rush to apply for the PSBC membership, adding that they would do so in due course.

Meanwhile, the BOFEPUSU party was guarded over the weekend when asked about the outcome of Thursday’s bargaining council meeting, saying they will issue a statement where necessary.