Pasdec fires over 60 workers

The company, which suspended over 150 employees early May for engaging in the strike, had summoned the affected workers for disciplinary hearings after it won the court decision recently. The May strike was the fourth at Pasdec since its establishment in 2015, with riot police being called to remove workers from the plant. The workers’ militancy and frequent strikes had reportedly irked Pasdec’s Malaysian principal investors. The Botswana Development Corporation also holds equity in the Lobatse company, having invested P52 million.

BusinessWeek is informed that while some of the affected workers were dismissed after disciplinary hearings, others were fired in absentia after having missed the hearings. The company is understood to have pinned a notice for the hearings at a hotel in the border town, which some suspended employees did not see and thus failed to attend the disciplinary hearings.