05 Mar 2015

Parliament, on March 4, debated a budget of over P38.4 million to be expended by the Industrial Court for 2015/2016 financial year with some legislators expressing concern at the large amounts returned unspent in the 2014/2015 financial year. 

Presenting the Industrial Court 2015/2016 budget proposal before Parliament Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Mr Edwin Batshu requested legislators to approve over P38.4million of which the total budget has increased by P4 million when compared to 2014/2015 financial year.

The minister submitted a recurrent budget request of P32.5 million which represented P4 million total budget increase compared to the 2014/2015 financial year budget which he attributed to the fact that the Industrial Court has recorded slight increases in both personnel emoluments and add backs as well as other charges such as service charges, sub-contracted repairs, vehicles and plant maintenance.

Adding to the increase he said was the establishment of an Industrial Court Board as well as furniture for Government Quarters. 

On the development the minister submitted a proposal of P5.9 million which he said was higher when compared to the 2014/2015 financial year budget of 5.7 million.

He said to date the Industrial Court has expended only 18 percent of the 2014/2015 budget attributing the low expenditure to delayed technical support and the required approval before projects could be commenced.

He said the projects pending commencement included Biometric Access Control and CCTV camera systems installations and associated hardware and software, court recording equipment, the overhauling of the Local Area Network, IT equipment and related items. 

He said these projects are expected to be carried out in the 2015/2016 financial year. 

Further he said with this money, inter-linking of court rooms within and between the court’ s divisions, the industrial court building account will be closed and the budget will also cover establishment of a call center.

Mr Batshu said the establishment of the Industrial Court 11 years ago has assured that settlement of trade disputes and maintenance of good industrial relations were dispensed off to all residents regardless of geographic location.

He said there has been increase in the number of litigants who were able to access the Industrial Court services adding that the court registered 2,299 new cases in 2014 alone. 

He added that a total of 4, 862 cases were brought before the judges for determination and adjudication while 2 563 cases were brought forward from the previous years.

Of the 4,862 cases brought before judges for adjudication, 3,534 or 73 percent were completed which Mr Batshu said was a commendable effort given the small number of 9 judges.

Debating the budget Palapye MP Mr Moiseraela Goya commended the court for completing cases despite limited resources. He expressed concern at the alarming rate at which industrial cases are growing which he said shows that relations between the employee and the employer were ‘sour’ and needed to be sorted out.

Mr Goya also said it was worrisome that the Industrial Court has underspent in its 2014/2015 development budget.

Lerala/Maunatlala MP, Mr Prince Maele also expressed dissatisfaction at the underspent funds adding that the reasons given by the minister were not convincing enough. 

He also commended the court for doing a good job despite limited resources saying access to justice had improved.

He also called for circuit courts to be extended to the remotest areas in his area. 

He said there were many industrial cases that go unresolved and sometimes employees were exploited because they had no knowledge of where to go. END