The Court of Appeal will today hear arguments in a case brought by labour unions under the 5+1 cooperating unions banner, who are challenging an Industrial Court ruling that allowed the employer to implement its agreement with the Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU). The Industrial Court had, on September 16, lifted a temporary interdict that had barred the implementation of the salary agreement separately concluded between BLLAHWU and the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) earlier this year.
The employer and BLLAHWU had finalised a salary enhancement agreement for the latter’s members shortly after the union (BLLAHWU) had exited the co-operation in June this year. In her answering affidavit, in which she is opposing the appeal, Macholo said the implementation that the 5+1 co-operating unions seek to interdict has already taken place and BLLAHWU’s members and non-unionised employees are entitled to, and have already accrued a right to, enhanced allowances. “As regards the alleged budget depletion of the budget for any remuneration adjustments, I deny that there is any real risk of such depletion, and the concern raised is highly speculative and is unsupported by any adduced concrete facts. It further overlooks that during the negotiations, the Employer Party fully disclosed the budget available and that the provision was in place for all employees, irrespective of whether they were unionised or not and which union an employee belonged to,” she said. Macholo said they had budgeted P250million for these salary enhancements, but have since increased that by a further P156 million. She stated that they are over 30,000 employees affected, which includes members of BLLAHWU and non-unionised employees who fall within bands A–D, who are entitled to benefits and are expecting to receive enhanced allowances.
