BOFEPUSU objects to gazetted labour Bill
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Wednesday August 9, 2017 17:07
The federation raised concerns following the meeting they were invited to with Minister Eric Molale on July 25, 2017 after the gazetting the Public Service Bill for tabling at Parliament. BOFEPUSU did not attend the meeting, arguing that they were given short notice as the invitation letter was only received the day before, on July 24.
In response to the invite, BOFEPUSU wrote to the ministry stating that they believed that the ministry responsible for labour issues is the Ministry Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, not the Presidency.
“This then means that at a time when we were invited to a meeting, the gazetted Bill has not been withdrawn, something which renders the intended consultation to be meaningless and in bad faith only seeking to legitimatise the Minister’s process of tabling the Bill at Parliament,” said the BOFEPUSU deputy secretary general, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa.
In the July 24 correspondence, Motshwegwa said they had written a letter to the Minister, “which he ignored” in which they argued that the Bill be withdrawn “as there has not been consultation, and we neither got response nor indication that the Bill has been withdrawn”.
The letter says prior to the gazetting of the Bill, they had also written to the Director of Public Service Management seeking to understand the rationale behind changes to some of the clauses envisaged for amendment.
“We had indicated that such a response will enable us to contribute in the process of amendments. We never got response to this noble request,” he wrote.
BOFEPUSU further stated that when it comes to amendment of labour laws, their understanding is that the Minister of Employment, Productivity and Skills Development, Tshenolo Mabeo made a commitment to have a holistic review of all labour laws in Botswana with the assistance of International Labour Organisation (ILO) high level technical experts. BOFEPUSU said these were agreed to at an international labour conference where Mabeo, the permanent secretary and ministry officials, Business Botswana, BOFEPUSU, Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) were in attendance.
Also, said Motshegwa, it was agreed that there shall be engagement of an independent reputable consultant to carry the assignment of drafting labour laws working with a reference committee comprising the social partners, and the report shall be presented to both labour advisory board and high level consultative council labour sub-committee.
“We therefore find attempts by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration as injurious to a decent process that was commissioned by the Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development and agreed to by all social partners, hence our humble request to the Minister of Presidential Affairs to withdraw efforts that will further tarnish the labour relations in this country and threaten our peace and stability of the country,” the letter reads.
In response, the DPSM director, Ruth Maphorisa wrote that BOFEPUSU missed an opportunity to raise these concerns at the July 25 meeting.
She said they have noted that BOFEPUSU had “raised concerns during a meeting with honourable assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs on March 20, 2017 regarding consultation on the public service Bill.
As a result you were invited to a consultative meeting on the public service Bill with the Minister on the 25th July, 2017. This gave you an opportunity to raise any issues on the proposed Bill. We wish to place it on record that you did not honour nor respond to the invitation”. The letter says BOFEPUSU have spurned the opportunity to be consulted prior to the Bill being tabled before Parliament.
Some of the amendments are that government shall not be required to deduct any trade union dues or levies from employees’ wages on behalf of a trade union save for union membership subscriptions; the directorate of DPSM shall be the secretariat of the council; every trade union recognised under this Act shall be entitled to appoint public officers as representatives from amongst its members for purposes of bargaining in good faith with government on salary and other monetary and non-monetary benefits, amongst others.