25 Aug 2025

Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU) has called on government to implement and enforce the Employment and Labour Relations Act recently passed by Parliament. 

Addressing the media in Gaborone on Thursday, the union’s president, Mr Thatayaone Kesebonye said government passed a law as desired by unions and labour stakeholders.

He said they were grateful that the Act flowed from ILO recommendations for a legal instrument that could be workers friendly, adding that it depicted unions’ input and represented workers interests. “As we are heading for the implementation of Employment and Labour Relations Act, make lets ensure we strengthen inspectorate. 

Though the law may have been passed and is meticulous, but there still however remain weak institutions responsible for inspectorate at the workplaces; the law will therefore fail because enforcement and implementation leave a lot to be desired,” he said.

He said implementation of the Act would curb abuse of workers mainly in the private sector, address pending occupational health issues and address child labour, which the law targeted through monitoring and evaluation. 

He also said public service unions alongside private sector unions were working together on the envisaged Public Service Amendment Bill before Parliament.

The president said they were not content with the healthcare status of the nation and would not let workers suffer, as they were also Batswana who needed healthcare. 

“We are calling on government to ensure that in the midst of this economic situation, workers have needs, but their health is important. When the economy is down, let us all be seen to be tightening the belt,” he said.

He further said education be prioritised to ensure that children education does not suffer due to economic downturn. “Even if we have demands as workers, we must be able to balance the demands of workers and the immediate demands of the public so that workers would be given their dues while the public was also healthy,” he said.Union secretary general, Mr Motshidisi Mafoko said urged government to prioritise workers once the economy was stable, because workers were generators of the economy. He said they had given government time to transform the economy as workers bore the brunt of the economy. 

He also said they called on government to ensure that employees at A3 who earned P2 895 transition to earn P4 000 as per government set standard.

He further said that allowances in-lieu of salary increase was considered; among them, housing and upkeep allowances. He said such negotiations by BLLAHWU gave enhancement of salaries of union members as from April to July. ENDS