'BOFEPUSU Bargain Council membership invalid'

TSHIRELETSO MOTLOGELWA
Staff Writer | Wednesday August 1, 2012 00:00

 

The Commissioner of Labour appointed mediator has found the Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) membership in the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC) invalid. The decision came after mediation in an application to the Commissioner in which the Trainers and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) queried the legality of the BOFEPUSU's application and subsequent admission to the council. TAWU is an affiliate of the Botswana Federation of Trade Union (BFTU), a rival of BOFEPUSU.

In an advisory judgement delivered yesterday, the mediator in the dispute Sam Leero said BOFEPUSU membership of the council was flawed, hence it should be derecognised. TAWU argued that when the five unions under BOFEPUSU applied to the council under the federation, they were not applying individually. When the federation was subsequently admitted to the council, the unions had not been admitted separately. TAWU sought to have the BOFEPUSU application declared null and void and hence the removal of the five unions, individually, from the council. TAWU argued that it is the registered union - BOFEPUSU - and not the five recognised trade unions which were admitted into the council.  'TAWU concludes its argument by stating that the application for admission to the PSBC was not even in the spirit of...the constitution of the PSBC,' stated the mediator.

Meanwhile, the joint secretary of BOFEPUSU argued that when the unions submitted their names individually, and then agreed to submit collectively, they should have been recognised as such and admitted collectively as a federation. 'The interim secretary concluded by advising that, when individual trade unions realised that they could not meet the required threshold for admission into the PSBC, they took a decision to act jointly as provided for under the laws of the country and the constitution of the PSBC. The interim secretariat informed the mediation that when acting jointly, the applicants far surpassed the threshold,' the mediator said. The mediator rejected BOFEPUSU's argument, stating that the application documents showed contradictory positions. On one hand, the individual unions argue that they had submitted their applications under BOFEPUSU, while they had attached their applications individually. The mediator said that there was no resolution to the effect that the unions had merged into one, recognisable for purposes of the Bargaining Council. 

'There is nothing that has been shown to me that the signatories to the application for admission to the PSBC were authorised to sign a document under another organisaiton's (BOFEPUSU) letterhead,' the mediator stated.He concluded that the assertion by the interim secretariat and the admission to the PSBC was in respect of BOFEPUSU and not some group of unions going by a name which resembles the acronym of the federation. The mediator found that the entity that was admitted into the Bargaining Council was not the one that submitted the application. Hence he terminated the membership of BOFEPUSU to the Bargaining Council. The five unions that applied for PSBC membership under the BOFEPUSU are Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU),  National Amalgamated Local Central Government and Parastatal Workers Union (NALCGPWU), Botswana Sector of Educators Union (BOSEU), Botswana Teachers Union (BTU) and Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU). The finding opens the gate for TAWU to formally request the recognition of the Federation through the courts.