13 Feb 2020

Parliament has been informed that the 2017 International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Committee on Application of Standards did not recommend holistic reviews of labour laws to align them with international standards.

Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, Mr Mpho Balopi said in 2017, the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS) made recommendations on Botswana’s compliance with ILO Convention No.87, but did not make any recommendations on Convention No.98 on the Protection of the Right to

Organize and Collective Bargaining.

Mr Balopi said the issues that the committee considered involved compliance with Convention 87, hence recommendations thereto, which his ministry was presently addressing.

“In respect to Convention 87, the committee recommended that the government should take appropriate measures that ensure that the labour and employment legislature grants members of the prison service the rights guaranteed by the Convention,” he said.

It further recommended that government should ensure that the Trade Disputes Act was in full conformity with Convention No.87 and engage in social dialogue with further technical assistance of ILO.

The committee further called for the amendment of the Trade Unions and Employers Organization Act, in consultation with employer and worker organisations, to bring those laws into conformity with the convention.

Additionally, the committee called upon government to develop a time-bound action plan together with the social partners  in order to implement those recommendations.

Furthermore, Minister Balopi also indicated that the work to address the recommendations regarding Convention No.87 was underway and involved ongoing consultations with the relevant stakeholders.

“A tripartite committee comprising representatives of government, employers and workers was established to spearhead this process,” he said.

Mr Balopi explained that during those consultations, it was resolved that the review of the laws should not be restricted to the Trade Disputes Act and Trade Unions and Employers Organisations Act, but should also cover the Employment Act and Public Service Act.

“This is being done in order to close all the gaps in the labour laws, while incorporating the judgments of the courts in the country and aligning the provisions of the laws with the provisions of ILO Conventions, which Botswana has ratified,” he said.

In doing this work, he said, the stakeholder committee doing the work was assisted by an ILO expert as recommended by CAS.

“A time-bound work plan was prepared and agreed with representatives of employers and workers on June 28, 2018.

This action plan was to end in July 2019 with presentations of the Bill to Parliament.

Unfortunately, this time-line has not been met because the International Labour Organisationexpert who was facilitating the process was withdrawn due to ill health,” he said.

The minister stated that in April 2019, the International Labour Organisation appointed a new expert to facilitate the process, and since then, substantial progress had been made to review labour laws.

The tripartite stakeholders- committee is scheduled to meet with the ILO expert on February 7, he said.

The meeting is expected to close all the gaps in the proposals for the review of the laws, while the consequential proposals will provide a basis for instructions to the Attorney General to draft the required Bill, he noted.

According to the minister, once the Bill has been drafted, it will be presented to Cabinet for consideration prior to its presentation to Parliament.

“It is our desire that the process to review labour laws be concluded by July 2020,” he added.

In addition, he highlighted that the matter of unionisation of prisons officers was one of the issues currently being discussed in the tripartite labour law review stakeholder-committee.

He said, “I think it would not be justified or prudent for government to pronounce itself on the matter while the consultative structure, which is dealing with the issues, is still deliberating.”

Minister Balopi was answering a question from Member of Parliament for Mahalapye East, Mr Yandani Boko, who wanted to know when government intended to complete the process of reviewing labour laws to align them to International standards and comply with international labour standards at a time when the country’s labour laws were anti-workers and anti-trade unions.

MP Boko also asked the minister to state if government had an intention to allow for unionisation of prisons services as per recommendations by International Labour Organisation. ENDS