Unions score big

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LOBATSE: The Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) has suffered yet another blow in its ongoing legal battle with trade unions that make up Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU). Yesterday, High Court judge Lot Moroka nullified the decision of then DPSM director Festinah Bakwena to terminate organisational rights that unions had enjoyed until August 2011 when her controversial decision was to take effect.

Others in raft of contestable decisions that government took were: cessation of assistance with deduction of loan repayments, cessation of the secondment of public service employees to unions, and cessation of transportation of employee representatives to congresses, annual conferences and governing councils.

In declaring Bakwena's decision null and void, Justice Moroka agreed with the union's argument that the decision to terminate their organisational rights without giving them a hearing had rendered it unfair and unlawful."It requires no rocket scientist to notice that an abrupt unilateral withdrawal of officers seconded to the unions would leave the offices without office bearers," Moroka said. "The secondment of these office bearers is in the recognition agreements signed by the parties."Similarly, Justice Moroka said the sudden withdrawal of office accommodation to unions had a disruptive effect to the day-to-day operations of the unions.

Editor's Comment
The people have spoken

In fact, early election results in some areas across the country, speak to large voter turnout which suggests that voters crowded at polling stations to decide appropriately. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) revealed that 80% of the 1,037,684 people who had registered to vote turned up to exercise their right.It’s unfortunate that at the time of cobbling this editorial comment, results had just started trickling in. We recognise that...

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