Government should respect both domestic and international labour laws

In its wisdom, parliament also rejected the Trade Disputes Act Amendment Bill since it is still before the courts of law. The bills should not be allowed to return to parliament.

The two bills should not have reached parliament in the first place, especially that the respective Ministers should have been advised in Cabinet where the Attorney General sits. In addition, the Minister of Education is a lawyer and a former High Court judge, and her understanding of the law should have been used to advise Cabinet. There is also a parliamentary counsel who should have advised to kill the bill. That the teacher unions had to mobilise so much resources and lobby MPs to stop the two bills is really disturbing, given the above experts the government has at its disposal. BTU and BOSETU really played their true role as civil society organisations. The membership of these unions should continue to rally behind this united force and protect their rights. The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) further applauds the BOFEPUSU urgent court application to interdict government on its April Fool 3 percent unilateral salary increment.