DTCB union threatens 'tools down'

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Thursday October 7, 2010 00:00

At a press conference held on Tuesday, the DTCB Union said the company leadership has rejected their demand for an eight percent increase in the cost of living allowance.

They also had sought an increment of the Transport and Gas Allowance from P180 to P1,000, but all the demands were refused, the union says.

DTCB Union chairman, Kabelo Kelepile, says the company management says that it can only increase the cost of living allowance by five percent and not eight and add P10 to the transport and gas allowance.

'We think this is an insult to us as workers. Ga ba thoahala - They are not serious,' he said.

The union leader said there is a lot of disparity between the workers and management when it comes to remuneration and allowances. He charged that the workers, who are mostly diamond sorters and valuators, only get a mere transport and gas allowance of P180 whilst management gets hefty amounts of money for car allowances.

'Those at the grade five pay scale get P5,354, grade six, 7,120 and grade seven gets P8,481. But we are just asking to be given P1,000 instead of the P180 they are given us for transport and gas. We don't want to buy cars, but we need money to pay for combis.

'You realise that the company has moved from the main mall where it was in the middle of the city and therefore easily accessible. Now we need to take a lot of combis to get to the new workplace at DTCB,' he said. When the media asked to justify their demands, Kelepile said they were looking at the 2009 Average Consumer Price Change for Botswana, which was 8.108 percent. 'Our cost of living have been hugely eroded looking at the fact that the management increased our salary by four percent by then.

'It should be noted that the inflation rate stood at an average of 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009. One of the things that we did was to part ways with 50 percent of our 13th cheque, and suspending getting supplementary uniform; denying ourselves the right to uniform,' he said.  He said looking at the 2010 statistics, inflation measured by the consumer price index, fell to 6.7percent down 0.3 percent points from 7.0 percent in July. This was mainly due to the decline in transport inflation from 12.8 percent to 10.2 percent as well as a marginal fall in inflation for recreation and culture from 6.2 percent to 6.1 percent,' he explained.

The DTC-B chairman added that electricity tariffs increased by 30 percent in May, 'not forgetting the two percent VAT increase from 10 to 12 percent,' he said.

It is against this background and 'looking at the current inflation rate, which is at 7.8 percent and how the management tried to mitigate the 2009 inflation rate by offering us four percent, we believe that the management should consider giving us eight percent,' he said.

Kelepile also said that they know the company is capable of meeting the demands as DTC-B has been performing well, having even exceeded the 2010 target for production by 10.5 percent. They have sorted more than the targeted 24 million carats of diamonds set for this year by 10.5 percent, said the union leader. 

Contacted for comment, DTC-B spokesman, Kago Mmopi, said the issue of the 2010 salary negotiations has been mediated but the mediation failed. 

He said they are shocked that there is a looming strike when it has been agreed that the two parties will meet to sort out the matter tomorrow. 'DTC Botswana would however wish to state that it was agreed with the union on October 4, 2010 that further engagements will continue on October 8, 2010 and as such we are surprised to hear media reports of a looming strike.

'Additionally, management has always been and will continue it's commitment towards constructive engagements with the union on any issue,' he said. 

The spokesman refused to shed light on why the management could not meet the demands made by employees.' Since this issue awaits further engagement with the union, the management of DTC Botswana shall not comment on the proposal,' Mmopi said.

Mmopi refuted charges that management is pushing for a review of its managament's remuneration by 28 percent saying it is purely speculative and has no substance.  'In addition, as is our custom that details pertaining to issues of remuneration are not discussed in the public domain,' he said.