10 Feb 2021

Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development says conditions of employment in the private and parastatal sectors are regulated by labour laws.

Answering a question in Parliament on Monday, Minister Mpho Balopi indicated that workplace rights and conditions of employment for security guards were also regulated by labour laws, adding that the laws provided for the enhancement of conditions of employment through collective bargaining involving workers and employers.

Currently, he said labour laws were being reviewed in consultation with employers and workers representatives with a view to closing gaps in the laws, incorporating judgements made by the courts in the country as well as the provisions of ILO conventions ratified by the country.

Mr Balopi highlighted that although monitoring compliance with labour laws in the private sector was the exclusive remit of his ministry, the Private Security Services Licensing Board under the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security (MDJS) also had an obligation under Section 5(e) and (f) of the Private Security Services Act to protect and enforce the rights of security guards through active monitoring and investigation of the affairs of security service providers.

He explained that the board conducts joint inspections with the Department of Labour and Social Security in order to curtail prevailing practices that were not in compliance with labour laws in the sector, such as failure or late payment of wages and benefits to employees.

Minister Balopi said it was a challenge for his ministry to establish the number of workers employed by security companies since the ministry did not have a system in place to capture labour market information.

However, he said his ministry in conjunction with Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) was developing a Labour Market Information System (LMIS). He said the system was envisaged to provide a wide range of labour market information.

He highlighted that information received from MDJS indicated that the ministry had a database of security companies but the database did not register security guards.

Mr Balopi pointed out that an on-going private security data collection survey by the Ministry had revealed that Private Security Companies (PSCs) provided employment to more than 35,000 security guards across the country.

He said there were 162 trade disputes involving security guards which were awaiting mediation in the District Labour Offices throughout the country.

Out of the 162 pending trade disputes, the minister said 20 cases involved severance benefit only, 18 leave pay only, 88 cases leave pay and severance benefit, 29 cases non-payment of wage increment and seven cases involved both severance benefit, leave pay and non-payment of wage increment.

During labour inspections and mediation/arbitration of trade disputes, he indicated that the main reason which was always cited by security companies for failure to pay employees on time was late payment by clients for services rendered by these companies.

He said government ministries and local authorities were among those that effected payments to security companies late and this adversely affected the companies’ obligations to meet their running costs as well as to pay wages to their employees.

The reality on the ground was that security companies were often facing the problem of lack of income that trickles down to employees, he noted.

Minister Balopi explained that in order to address the problem of late payment to suppliers by government ministries and local authorities, government had long made a decision that payment to suppliers should be made within 5 days of delivery of products or provision of service.

Maun East Member of Parliament, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile had asked the Minister to brief Parliament on measures taken to improve Security Guards’ working conditions and protect their workplace rights.

He further asked Mr Balopi to state the total number of workers employed by security companies, number of security guards’ grievances pending in different Labour Offices and the number involving severance benefits, unpaid leaves and none wage increments out of the pending cases. BOPA