BOFEPUSU Rallies Behind BCL Workers
Staff Writer | Monday October 24, 2016 16:23
The meeting was attended by dozens of people from all walks of life in Selebi-Phikwe, signifying how the decision by government to liquidate and close down the BCL Mine has affected the whole community of Selebi-Phikwe.
The federation officials indicated to the BCL employees and the Selebi-Phikwe community that by bringing a solidarity message to them, they were living up to the old adage, “an injury to one is an injury to all” and as such they could not just watch and become indifferent to the calamity that has befallen the BCL workers and the Selebi-Phikwe community.
The Secretary General of the federation Tobokani Rari indicated that the position of the federation is that the BCL should not have been liquidated and that they hold steadfast to the position that the situation that BCL finds itself in is due to lack of foresight and recklessness in decision making on the part of the BCL management, its board and the sole shareholder, being government.
Rari was forthright in stating that a considered view of the federation is that the BCL management, its Board of Directors and the shareholder, being government, recklessly through dubious means haemorrhaged BCL in the name of diversifying the mine’s sources of income.
He further stated that from their standpoint as a labour federation, government short-circuited, circumvented and violated due process in relation with labour statutes that regulate retrenchments and lay-offs.
Rari elaborated that recognised trade unions through their collective agreements with the employer, reserve the right to be consulted and bargained with in cases of alterations of conditions of service of employees, including among others, in cases of organisational restructuring and even liquidation.
He indicated that in a fashion akin to a mafia style, government being the sole shareholder at the BCL Mine, moved swiftly without consulting the BMWUs, a recognised trade union at the BCL.
“This, in our view was deliberate to purposely deny the Union the right to negotiate exit packages for their members as the law suggests”.
In view of the foregoing. the BOFEPUSU Secretary General made it known that as a federation, they are ready to lend their assistance to the BMWU to litigate for breach of the right to be consulted and bargained with to protect the rights of their members.
He lamented the insensitivity of the government in view of the wrong timing that the decision to liquidate BCL was made.
“It was made at the time that students are writing their final examinations. There is no doubt that the psychological trauma caused by the closure of the BCL Mine will affect negatively the students writing their final exams in Phikwe schools and consequently the results of Phikwe schools”, lamented Rari
He also told the rally that the federation would assist the employees of BCL, in conjunction with the BMWU, to petition parliament, organise rallies and demonstrations.
He however advised the Selebi-Phikwe residents to organise such rallies and demonstrations in Phikwe on weekly or fortnightly basis to relay their displeasure about the closure of BCL.