Trouble brewing as unions call for regime change

Public sector trade unions suggest that the simple solution to their sour labour relationship with the employer would be to remove the major combatants- government-from power. Two Court of Appeal judgments by Judge president Ian Kirby have effectively changed the labour relations playing field permanently. Kirby’s judgments have far-reaching implications with trade unions feeling labour relations in the country will never be the same again.

The Unions are nursing bruises after losing two watershed cases prompted by the 2011 public sector strike. It has been two testing weeks for the labour movement and this Wednesday Kirby delivered the killer blow by overturning Justice Key Dingake’s judgment in which he ruled that the dismissal of close to 500 essential service workers was unlawful.

Union leaders now feel Kirby has just thrown their bargaining power through the window. First the unions feel that their right to strike has effectively been taken away and secondly, government has been given arbitrary power to dismiss striking workers without a hearing. “This has tilted the scales of labour relations towards the employer at the expense of the employee,” said Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) spokesperson Goretetse Kekgonegile in an interview.

He said the first judgment has taken away the right to strike by essential service workers while the second had set a bad precedent, as government will now dismiss employees who go on strike. Also fear is being instilled in workers that they should not participate in future strikes. “This is bad for labour relations because we should be equals, and now because of these two judgements we are subordinates.”

About 500 former essential service employees will remain unemployed following the Wednesday judgement. Unionist, Johnson Motshwarakgole described Kirby as “surprising,” adding that the Judge has created a lot of problems. Motshwarakgole, who walked out in protest as Kirby was reading the judgment, said the relationship between the unions and employer will remain ugly unless the employer calls a meeting to address the matter.

But head of the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) Carter Morupisi argued that the two Court of Appeal judgments would not tear the parties’ relationship apart. “This is not the end of the world. We have a responsibility of serving the nation. It is the responsibility of every public servant to make sure that the wheels of government are managed,” he said in an interview. The significance of good industrial relations in any country cannot be overemphasised.

A country’s economic progress hinges on maintaining good industrial relations. However following the two judgements it is feared that labour relations in the country could hit their lowest point. Union sources say an unhappy employee will lead to slowdowns at the workplace. This is expected to affect the economy badly, but Kekgonegile played down these claims. 

“This is our country; we will not go to that level of killing the economy,” he said. However, according to him what is needed is a regime change. He said they will address nationwide meetings to seek Batswana’s sympathy and advice them to vote wisely in the next general elections.