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Botswana : SOLIDARITY MESSAGE

D 21 avril 2011     H 04:46     A Botswana National Front     C 0 messages


Botswana National Front has been following with keen interest the protracted negotiations over salaries between the BDP Government and Public Sector Unions under BOFEPUSU and Government over the 2011 salary increase. The Unions demand for 16% is premised on the understanding from the Union that for the past 3 years there was never any salary increase. The BNF is disturbed by the manner and attitude of Government in the negotiations with the Unions, which in our view smacks of an arrogant Government negotiating in bad faith. It is this intransigent behaviour of the government which has left the Unions with no option but to embark on industrial action effective from 18th April 2011. Such action will have devastating consequences on the economy which the government tries to protect. We urge the BDP Government to return to the negotiating table in order to avert this strike.

The BNF believes that the workers demand for salary increase is legitimate and will rally behind the workers for the duration of the industrial action. The argument by the government that salaries cannot be adjusted due to the economic downturn should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves as this is the same government which continues to spend millions of pula on unsustainable projects which were not even budgeted for. To show that Government has not been negotiating in good faith, before the budget speech was read in Parliament, the President had already told the rural residents of North East that there will be no salary increases this year, while on the other hand his Minster of Finance said in the budget speech that the negotiations with the Unions were on going. What a fallacy !!!!

We understand that a dispute was declared on the 11 March 2011 upon which the Commissioner of Labour appointed a Mediator to resolve the dispute and the dispute could not be resolved because the Government stuck to its heels of offering zero and not willing to shift from its intransigent position while on the other hand the Union were willing to scale down its demand. Since there was no prospects of settlement the Mediator issued a Certificate of Failure to settle hence the Unions took a decision to go for Industrial Action which is a protected strike (legal strike) in terms of the Trade Dispute Act. The Government in the interim has offered 2% which is conditional to be paid in September 2011 if the economy performs well. We understand last week the Government tried to convince the Unions to accept 5% based on the same conditions of economic recovery which the Union legitimately rejected. The BNF urge the Government do away with the conditional offer. It is important to note Government failure to increase salaries has in effect made all private sector workers not to get any salary increase because they follow what Government does and this is robbing the working class.

We wish to state that we are in solidarity with workers who demand their rights and call upon the powers that be to take heed of workers demands since their purchasing power has been eroded over the years. To workers we say ‘WORKERS OF BOTSWANA UNITE AND YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS !!!’

By BNF- Labour Secretary

Cde Maemo Bantsi