26 Mar 2019

Minister Tshenolo Mabeo of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development has requested Parliament to approve the ministry’s budget estimates totaling P828.3 million for the next financial year.

Presenting the proposals on Monday, Mr Mabeo said the amount comprised a recurrent budget of over P745.3 million and a development budget amounting to P83 million.

On the recurrent budget, he indicated that the amount represented an increase of P65.8 million over the allocation for the 2018/19 financial year.

Giving a breakdown of the allocation, he proposed a sum of P133 million for the ministry headquarters, of which P80.9 million would go towards parastatal organisations under the ministry, being Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) and Construction Industry Trust Fund (CITF).

The Department of Labour and Social Security will get P52.5 million, while those of Occupational Health and Safety, and Skills Development will get P13 million and P546.7 million respectively.

As for development budget, the minister noted that P83 million would, among others, go towards the procurement of additional components to the Local Area Network upgrading and provision of ICT equipment to brigades, the establishment of rapid skills centres in different parts of the country, maintenance of vocational training facilities, as well as the development and implementation of the Botswana Employment System.

He explained that the objective of the Botswana Employment System would be to enhance and expand on the registration of job seekers, employees and employers, matching of skills against available vacancies for possible placement, and monitoring transfer of skills from non-citizens to locals.

On how the ministry had fared since the start of the current financial year, Mr Mabeo indicated that the process of amending labour laws was progressing well, citing among the laws considered for amendment the Employment Act, Trade Disputes Act, Trade Unions and Employers’ Organisations Act and the Public Service Act.

He said the reasons for their amendment were to address gaps in the Acts, facilitate doing business, incorporate the various decisions of the courts into the laws and to align them to international labour standards that Botswana has ratified. On a different subject, he said from April 2018 to January this year, the ministry had conducted 2 113 labour inspections against a set target of 3 800.

The inspections, he noted, were targeted towards the retail, mining, agricultural and tourism sectors, adding that the sectors had been found to be having an 87 per cent compliance level to labour laws.

However, he observed that the highest rate of non-compliance was noted in the retail sector at 82 per cent.

Further, he stated that during the same period in the current financial year, 30 companies had retrenched a total of 399 employees, with the manufacturing industry being the most affected sector with 212 employees retrenched.

On trade dispute resolution, he said between April 2018 and January this year, the ministry had registered 7 847 trade disputes in addition to 1 007 cases brought forward from the preceding financial year.

He said while the bulk of the disputes were at various stages of being resolved, 1 361 were yet to be heard.

On occupational health and safety, Mr Mabeo said 880 workplaces were inspected against a set target of 1 436 for the period between April last year to January this year.

He added that a total of 33 occupational accidents were registered during the same period, with the construction sector leading with 29 cases, two of which were fatal.

The remaining four accidents, he said were from the manufacturing industry. He stated that in addition to the 1 970 cases brought forward from the years before for compensation for injuries, occupational diseases or deaths, 991 new cases were registered within the period under review.

He said 886 of the cases were from government while 2 075 were from other sectors.

Mr Mabeo noted that 584 claims were settled, out of the 2 962 lodged, translating to a settlement rate of 19.7 per cent. Ends