Botswana Postal Service Workers Union secretary general Mogakolodi Masele said Pule should have attended the congress to come face to face with the employees to answer their concerns. He said they invited the director general to perform the official opening of the congress but he did not pitch up due to other commitments. Consequently, the event was held without an official opening address. Masele said they wanted Pule in person and not his representative to attend the congress. This is because there are many thorny issues that workers want him to explain. Masele noted that the issue of restructuring and former government employee pensions have been pending for too long and there is no hope that they will be resolved soon. He said this frustrates employees and that is why there was a high number of resignations recently. He noted that the management has not been making efforts to address their concerns and that is why the union appealed to the Minister of Science and Technology Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi to intervene. They are still waiting for feedback. He indicated that the postal management has requested a meeting with those who have resigned in a bid to convince them to stay. Masele said if Pule came to the congress he would have got an opportunity to give an explanation directly to the employees.
He said the restructuring exercise has stopped many things at the parastal, like salary reviews. "When it started, the salary review was effected for the senior staff management but the lower bands were not considered so there is a total mismatch of salary structures. There is a lot of inconsistency because management do not understand the restructuring exercise the same. We always meet the management during the union/management meeting but we had wished to draw Pule face to face with the employees," Masele said. He stated that the union and management took a long time negotiating some of the exercise procedures without reaching common ground. Hence there is nothing that the executive committee could report to the union members. He added that as observers of the interview panel the executive committee was told not to be part of the Central Processing Centre where marks are compiled. As such, they excused themselves from the interview panel.
