12 Nov 2013

The Revised National Policy on Incomes, employment, prices and profits of 2005 emphasises the need to protect Batswana employees from exploitation.

Answering a question in Parliament, the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu said consequently, the policy recommended that minimum wages for workers in the specified trades and industries in the private and parastatal sectors be retained.

He said workers in the agricultural and domestic sectors as well as those in the textile industry, among others, were covered by minimum wage regulations. He said minimum wages were reviewed periodically in order to take into account the ever changing circumstances in the economy.

He said during the last two years, the minimum wage rates were adjusted, on the advice of the Minimum Wages Advisory Board by nine (9) percent for 2012/2013 through statutory instrument NO 55 of 2013, except in the agricultural sector where the minimum wage was increased by 12.4 percent.

In addition, Mr Batshu said in 2012 government approved the recommendation by the minimum wages advisory board to carry out a comprehensive review of the minimum wages adding that the review will take into account the peculiarities of each and every trade or sector that is eligible for minimum wage regulations.

The MP for Okavango Mr Bagalatia Arone had asked what government was doing to protect low paid workers in the agricultural and domestic sectors and in the textile industry from being paid exploitative wages. ENDS