Gov�t Give Trade Unions Notice To Take Away Deduction Code
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday February 27, 2017 17:16
The trade Unions last year managed to frustrate the Government’s attempt to take away the rights to deduction codes from the trade Unions after their urgent court applications were successful.
Government had gone ahead and advertised for interests to manage its newly created central registry. However, there is talk that someone highly connected to Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi had long positioned himself for the job. This was after one of the affected trade Unions, BOPEU, revealed in their supporting court papers that they had been approached by the entrepreneur to partner them in managing the business, long before the tender was published. Now the Unions have reported that recently when they were expecting to start the mediation process over the issue of the deduction codes and central; registry as the court had ordered, they were slapped with a memo notifying them that Government would in six months time take back the deduction codes right because of rampant abuse of the tool by the trade Unions
The trade Unions use the deduction codes to manage monthly subscriptions of their members as well as loan deductions where trade Unions run such businesses as cash loans, insurance policies, or bank loans, for their members. Botswana Federation of Public Private Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) Ketlhalefile Motshegwa alleges they have observed that the central registry issue is being widely viewed as a lucrative business by certain entrepreneurs associated with the Vice President. “It is unfortunate that in their eyes this is being seen as a cash resource to tap in.
It is unfortunate that our national leaders appear to have placed personal business interests above national interests”. Motshegwa vowed that BOFEPUSU would continue to fight to safeguard organisational rights like this one.
Motshegwa underlined that BOFEPUSU would also pursue to reverse the recently amended Public Service Act that has rendered almost all services essential services. “We will be going to court to invalidate these amendments. which were made without the Labour Movement’s input, consultations, and are ultra vires International Labour Organisations(ILO) conventions, for which Botswana is a signatory. Alongside challenging the Essential Services Act, Motshegwa says BOFEPUSU will also soon go to court to challenge the Public Service Act amendment that took away the independence of the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC) and turned it into just another Government department.
“ People often say the trade Unions are militant and radical, but it is clear with all these litany of draconian anti-labour movement amendments, this Government is radical and militant against trade Unions,” Motshegwa says, revealing that another court case of importance that BOFEPUSU have decided to pursue is the one on Electronic Voting Machine. “We will be challenging its constitutionality,” he says.
He adds that BOFEPUSU is seriously contemplating private prosecution of high profile cases that appear to be stalled or swept under the carpet to protect certain identities.