Labour Commissioner enters Debswana /Union row

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Friday September 10, 2010 00:00

The offer is the result of intensive negotiations under the two parties' Joint Negotiating Consultative Committee (JNCC) but are yet to bear fruit nearly six months after they began.

This week, BusinessWeek learnt that the two parties deadlocked over the four percent proposal from management and conditions attached, resulting in their joint decision to rope in a mediator, namely, the Commissioner of Labour.

BMWU Deputy Secretary General, Sebataladi Ramoitoi, says for the union, the crux of the dispute is Debswana's insistence that its four percent offer should include the reduction of gas cylinder, electricity and water provisions to employees. He says workers view the provisions as rights while Debswana views them as interests.

'Our contention is that these are part and parcel of our lives in Debswana,' he says. 'These provisions are essential to our lives, but Debswana says they are interests.

'Management had proposed two percent, then raised this to four percent with conditions that the cylinders will be reduced from four to two as will the electricity and water provision.

'We are saying these are part of our conditions of service and are rights. As a result of the differences, a dispute was declared and the Labour Commissioner was called in to mediate. He has set the mediation for this Friday (today).'

It is understood the Labour Commissioner's task will be to determine whether gas cylinders, electricity and water fall under 'rights or interests,' a decision that will significantly affect the resolution of the drawn-out wage negotiations.

'If you can imagine the lowest paid workers receiving P2, 500 a month, then receiving merely four percent on top.If those provisions are taken away, that worker will receive an additional P1, 200 a year from which he will spend P600 every time he buys a gas cylinder! This effectively means the four percent increase is a decrease in salary,' says Ramoitoi.

Even after the Labour Commissioner's mediation is complete, it is expected that unionists will press Debswana for a higher wage review. Already it is understood the union's strategists have been studying the upward diamond price curve this year, lower interest rates and projections for higher production in 2010.

Some elements within the labour body are said to be using BCL Mine's wage review to pressure their employer into a higher wage offer. BCL Mine and its union sealed a 7.5 percent across the board wage deal in June.

'Last year, we were awarded a four percent review for 2009/10 and they based this on the harsh effects of the global recession, which we also understood,' a Jwaneng Mine employee told BusinessWeek.

'However, conditions have been improving this year and management needs to present workers with an improved offer, given the tribulation they have been through in the last 21 months or so.'

Meanwhile, BMWU was scheduled to meet Debswana management yesterday to discuss issues related to the latest round of negotiations. These include the overhaul of the 2008 retrenchment agreement governing the formula for retrenchment packages and the non-production machine operators' packages.