16 Mar 2021

Botswana Federation of Public, Private & Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) has stressed the need for personal protective equipment (PPEs) in the teaching sector to protect teachers against the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Addressing a joint news conference with the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) on Monday, BOFEPUSU secretary-general Mr Tobokani Rari said at least 24 teachers had lost their lives due to COVID-19 related complications within the last two months. 

He said statistics were recorded by the teaching sector trade unions  and corroborated by the Ministry of Basic Education.  

Mr Rari said it was a sad reality that teachers as frontline workers did not have the necessary ammunition to fight the rampant coronavirus. 

Teachers, he said, were working in a high risk  environment and for that reason  ought to be furnished with PPEs. 

“PPEs in the case of teachers for example we are not referring to the full suit, we are referring to the appropriate masks, gloves, sanitisers,” he said.

He said according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) convection on safety at the workplace, any employer who demanded that employees work, subjecting them to risks and hazards, was responsible for protecting them. 

Meanwhile, Mr Rari said the unions had argued that since COVID-19 was an occupational hazard, there was need to for a risk allowance just like in countries such as Zambia and Lesotho. 

He explained that public sector unions had over time engaged government to pay frontline workers risk allowance. 

On another matter, he said the labour movement encouraged  workers to take the vaccination when it was rolled out as the Botswana Medical Regulatory Authority (BOMRA) would have assessed quality assurance prior. ends