�Unending feuds� with gov�t torment BOPEU
Chakalisa Dube | Thursday December 1, 2016 16:28
Speaking at the union’s Central Executive Committee conference in the northern city, Motsamai told Vice President, Mokgweetsi Masisi that the feuding was a cause for concern.
The conference was held under the theme ‘Defending and Preserving Workers Agenda in the Midst of Repressive Labour Laws’.
“Your Honour, we appeal to your office to soberly engage the public sector unions with empathy and address our burning industrial relations concerns urgently,” Motsamai said.
A visibly worried Motsamai said in the past decade trade unions had felt and witnessed the development of anti-labour laws coupled with what he labelled “an executive-minded judiciary”.
The veteran unionist said government’s current conduct was leading many to believe it was driving towards stringent exploitative laws geared at “whipping workers into line”.
“Our theme encapsulates a deeper sense of a troubled and hurting workforce. Low salaries and a negative government attitude towards sound labour management practices, are a great source of concern to us,” he said.
“There is no way public service workers can deliver in an environment that is deficient of industrial harmony.”
Over the last decade the government has also changed tact and no longer views trade unions as partners in the development of the country, Motsamai continued.
“Government no longer sees value in consulting trade unions but trade unions are vital in the development of any nation,” he said.
The BOPEU leader accused government of ‘endlessly barring’ trade unions from participating in vital bodies such as the Botswana National Productivity Centre, which he said was among reasons for low productivity in the public service.
Motsamai urged government to consider adopting a three-year tier negotiation system, whereby the outcome of what has been negotiated and concluded is implemented over a three-year period.
The union’s stance, he said, is informed by the fact that many progressive employers both locally and across the world have adopted the strategy to reduce animosity generated by the nature of salary negotiations and to improve industrial relations.
In response, Masisi said he had already received some of Motsamai’s talking points from the union’s attorney and government was seized with them.