The labour seminar will be held at the Francistown Institute of Health Sciences.
TAWU secretary general, Edward Tswaipe said yesterday that the interactive consultative seminar would help the stakeholders to appreciate certain labour-related matters."Most of the tertiary institutions in the north are Brigades and in terms of labour disputes emanating from these institutions, they are a problem," revealed Tswaipe. The fiery trade unionist indicated that their capacity to handle trade disputes has shown that there are a lot of challenges. He said labour disputes continue to reach TAWU, hence the need to de-centralise responsibilities.
He added that cases reaching TAWU reflects that generally there is tension between the employer and employees. "Some of the labour disputes reaching TAWU leadership for instance, show that some of our members are seriously challenged in so far as trade unionism and resolving disputes are concerned," stressed Tswaipe. This has forced the TAWU leadership to put measures to close the gap and give powers to the union leaders in the regions and at the industry in general.
He expressed worry that some employees continue to lose their jobs unfairly while others face unfair charges.
"As a union, we have now resolved to proactively arrest the situation before it costs us any further. Our strongest belief is that education of trade unionists is paramount as those that have been empowered will impart the necessary knowledge to those that are challenged."
The aim of the TAWU leadership is to assist regional unionists to deal with emerging situations at the work place.
Tswaipe reiterated that the Saturday seminar would emphasise more of orientation as the main training is anticipated to be held soon. "We have also identified a labour lawyer to impart the legal expertise to empower our members to the level of paralegals."
Meanwhile, TAWU plans to start collaborating with the Botswana Land Boards and Local Authorities Workers' Union (BLLAWU) and Manual Workers' Union to train shop stewards. "It is very expensive to conduct proper training for shop stewards. We therefore want to collaborate with BLLAWU and Manual Workers' Union for this important training," he said. He added that BLLAWU has already contacted labour experts from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions for the labour training.
He indicated that they would like to take advantage of the BLLAWU arrangement more so that the training for shop stewards is generic and this will also help them cut other costs.
