21 Aug 2014

Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Mr Edwin Batshu has cautioned employers who have not taken Workers’ Compensation insurance for their workers to stop the practice forthwith.

Speaking at the workers compensation Pitso, Minister Batshu said the Workers’ Compensation Act made it mandatory for every employer to insure his or her worker.  He said any employer who failed to comply with the law would be penalised.  He however called upon insurance companies to also oblige and pay without hurdles.

Mr Batshu said in implementing the provisions of the act, they also encountered numerous challenges such as employers not reporting occupational diseases, injuries or deaths to the Commmissioner for workers compensation within 17 days period as prescribed by section 9.

Other challenges, he said, included amongst others workers not notifying their employers when they were injured, medical doctors not knowledgeable enough on workers’ compensation issues and thus allotting incorrect degrees of incapacity of workers and also delays in processing and paying claims by government departments.

“Our set turnaround time for payment of workers compensation claims from government employees is 14 days while for the private sector is 30 days,” he said.

However, the minister said a lot of ministries paid well over a month while some employees under the private sector got paid even after one or two years.

Minister Batshu noted that the payment of workman’s compensation used to be centralised up until 2012, when it was decentralised in the quest to speed up the payment process, adding that however, “the effect is yet to be felt.”

He said on the basis of the challenges encountered, the ministry has decided to develop a common understanding of the provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act, clarify the role of each stakeholder and also sensitise stakeholders on the importance of timely payment of workers compensation claims.

The ministry has also come up with ways of improving the turnaround time of payment of claims and reducing occupational injuries and deaths, he said. The minister also emphasised the need to pay special attention to safety in the work place, by both the employer and the employee.

He reminded all stakeholders that the pitso would ultimately provide them with a way forward in dealing with workers compensation issues which would greatly improve service delivery.

He said statistics show that the numbers of reported workers compensation cases are relatively high and they also revealed that male employees were the ones who got injured and that in private sector, injuries were mostly registered from the building construction industry followed by manufacturing industry.

In the public service, he said, the Botswana Defence Force and the Botswana Police Service had the most injuries. Mr Batshu said the ministry would continue to carry out labour inspections to ensure compliance with the provisions of the act.

He also called for a concerted effort in addressing challenges faced by the ministry, adding that Vision 2016 required all to contribute to the creation of a safe and secure nation, a compassionate, just and caring nation and a prosperous, productive and innovative nation. ends