Othusitse Tsalaile was speaking to Mmegi on the eve of their commemoration of Quality Public Service Week to be held in Gaborone tomorrow (Saturday).
According to Tsalaile, the commemoration is aimed at educating public servants about the importance of productivity in the work place. "There is a lot of productivity within the public service but the laziness is encouraged by government. How can you tell people to be productive when you are not checking if at all they are productive?" Tsalaile asked, charging that government does not care if its employees are sleeping on the job.
He stated that if government were seriously monitoring the productivity of its employees it would reward them accordingly through the Performance Based Reward System (PBRS). "This would allow employees who are not performing to pull up their socks and compete with their colleagues so that they can be rewarded at the end of the year," Tsalaile stated.
He said that the commemoration would involve raising awareness amongst their membership as to the objectives of PSI and the importance of productivity. "We want to stop the notion that public servants are negligent in their jobs. The mandate of the unions is to make sure employees are well paid but here we are looking at their productivity," he said.
Three unions - the Manual Workers Union (MWU), Botswana Land Board and Local Authorities Workers Union (BLLAWA) formerly BULGSA, and the Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) - represent PSI. PSI, which is based in France, has over 20 million members all over the world and has a national coordinating committee in each country. According to Tsalaile, it was agreed at a conference in 2000 that such campaigns be held yearly until the next conference, which should be held in Austria by September this year.
