10 Apr 2016

The industrial court will today deliver a judgement which will determine the fate of the recently awarded three per cent salary increment to public service employees.

This follows an urgent application to the court by Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU), seeking to declare the increment unlawful and that it should be suspended.

The unions attorney, Mr Mboki Chilisa submitted before Justice Harold Rehukya that the decision to award the increment deprives his clients the right to bargain collectively with the government.

He said the government awarded the increase unilaterally because there was no union party to the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC). 

Mr Chilisa said the appeal meant that the implementation of the judgement was suspended.

 “We are now where we were before the delivery of the judgement, the applicants are members of the PSBC,” he added.

He said the government has the duty to bargain in good faith and that bypassing the bargaining council was not bargaining in good faith.

Mr Chilisa told the court that they were only informed of the decision to award an across the board salary increment on 31^st March. “The decision is taken in bad faith. It breaches the duty of bargaining in good faith,” added Mr Chilisa.

 In addition, he said if indeed the bargaining council was defunct, the government could have negotiated with trade unions as it used to do prior to the formation of PSBC.

Mr Chilisa pleaded with the court to interdict the decision, saying failure to do so would mean that the government would continue to unilaterally increase salaries.

 Ms Oteng Thamuku said the PSBC was now defunct as it was failing to carry roles conferred on it by the Public Service Act.

 She said there was no one to call to the negotiation table hence the government decided to award the public service an increment.

 She further said issues of salary increment were not sectorial hence the government could not go back to negotiate with sector unions. Ms Thamuku prayed that if the court decides to reverse the salary increment, the decision should exclude senior government management as they were not unionised.

However, Mr Chilisa disagreed, saying there was nothing stopping the senior management to form a union which would represent their interest at the PSBC.  Ends