No salary increment for public servants

The government, through the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM), has brought nothing to the negotiation table with the six (6) recognised Trade Unions, Botswana Guardian can reveal.The two negotiating teams started their engagement on Monday this week in Mahalapye, but ended abruptly on Wednesday night without any progress.This publication can reveal that the negotiations started on the wrong footing after the unions’ negotiating representative accused the Employer party of being economical with information. This resulted in the meeting being postponed to allow the Employer to bring the correct information.It has emerged that the unions wanted a salary increase for all public servants, or if the fiscus does not permit it, at least the government should pay P4000. 00 minimum wage that has been promised by the current administration in its election manifesto.The Employer, however, indicated that it would not be possible to do so. According to insiders, government fears a push effect whereby paying P4000.00 to the lower scale could necessitate salary adjustments across the other pay scales.The cooperating unions' position paper seen by this publication, shows that they are amenable to a payment plan to restore the integrity of the civil servants and to correct and restore the salary structure. Meanwhile, government pledged an increase for Housing and Upkeep Allowance by P300 for A and B scales.The Employer’s representatives made it clear that the government would not be able to meet the demands of the union to implement the P4000.00 minimum wage.According to the government, it can only implement the pay structure model used by Choppies Enterprise. While Choppies was hailed for being the first to implement the UDC electoral promise, the retail giant would later reveal that it would not be paying the P4000.00 as minimum wage.Instead, they said they will be paying an allowance.Documents show that the proposal by the government means those in the A and B scales will get their P2 800.00 salaries plus the P300. 00 allowance, which will total P3 100.00 which also falls short of the P4 000.00 proposed by the union.The unions want salaries for public servants to be improved, as they have not been paid well but have endured poor conditions of service, as evidenced by Directive No. 1 of 2008. Unions want competitive salaries for public servants, at par with the private sector and parastatals.However, the government has maintained that it would not be possible to make such an increment.According to insiders, there is a likelihood that the negotiations will collapse as the unions are annoyed by revelations that executives starting at the E2 level secretly increased their salaries and awarded themselves a 15 percent allowance for the financial year 2023/24.The possible deadlock could result in the unions having to get a fresh mandate and the Employer party doing the same with their principal.Botswana Guardian can reveal that the negotiations ended without any progress on Wednesday night.Sometimes last month DPSM boss Gaone Macholo was at pains to explain why there is a huge disparity for public servants’ allowances, between higher ranking officials and lower cadres.The Executive Officers allegedly secretly awarded themselves 15 percent allowances which was not even approved by Parliament. These are the senior government officials in the E Scale and above.This decision was made even though the senior government officials enjoy a responsibility allowance.According to Macholo, they introduced commuted allowance for lower cadres because it was becoming a burden as some officers even claimed allowance which was higher than their salaries.Most of them now do not want commuted allowance, they want hour-to-hour allowance, she added. Macholo said the intention is to control the overtime allowance.She stated that if not controlled it will be a burden and this might affect productivity and they have to think about the future, revealing that the overtime allowance is abused in some instances.

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No salary increment for public servants