SALARY TALKS STANDOFF DPSM, Unions look for foreign arbitrator

The salary negotiations between Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) and the Five Cooperating Trade Unions (5CTU), who demand a massive 15% salary increment for the civil servants, seems to be far from over as the two parties have agreed to look for a private arbitrator from abroad. In an interview, the Coordinator of 5CTU Tobokani Rari said both the employer, DPSM and the unions had a virtual meeting and agreed that they source a private arbitrator from outside the country. Rari said the process of sourcing arbitration outside the country should be commenced by both parties with the Curriculum Vitaes (CVs) of individuals from those arbitration companies sourced, adding that the employer and union party will meet on the June 26 to agree on the name of the arbitrator.

MASISI ON SPOTLIGHT

Rari said as trade unions they are very much disappointed with the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government under the leadership of President Mokgweetsi Masisi. Rari also said the government’s failure to increase workers salaries by 15% while politicians have increased their salaries by 22% and those of the public service Executive Cadre by 20% is all what is important to a government that does not have regard for the employees and their welfare. Rari said the failure to resuscitate the Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC) by Masisi following the numerous promises that he made to the unions is indicative that his government has totally failed the workers. Soon after ascending to the presidency, Masisi promised to facilitate the resuscitation of the PSBC by September 2018. He made the promise during the Labour Day celebrations in the City of Francistown in May 2018. Five years later and with elections being around the corner, the PSBC remains dissolved with DPSM dillydallying, and making one excuse after another when called to fulfill Masisi’s promises.

Rari said the DPSM and trade unions are currently in salary negotiations deadlock because the employer party negotiation team had their mandate fixed and as such, they could not move from the 0% that they brought to the table over and above the 5% that had already been agreed upon in 2022. Rari said this is despite the fact that the union party had indicated that it has a flexible mandate to move downwards from 10% over and above the 5% that was agreed in 2022. “The union party even demonstrated its commitment by dropping down from a 10% over and above the 5% that was agreed in 2022 to 8% but the employer could not reciprocate,” said the disappointed Rari. A DISPUTE Meanwhile, Rari said the deadlock between unions and DPSM means that there is a dispute between the two parties, and it needs resolution. He said the parties resolved that they should resolve their dispute through the process of arbitration and that they should engage a private arbitrator. “This now means that a third party (an arbitrator) would hear the two parties and hand down his determination which will be binding,” said Rari. In addition, Rari said the route that parties took of private mediation, does not accommodate an industrial action as the arbitrator would have to make a decision about the dispute which is final and binding hence putting the matter to finality. However, Rari said public service employees still reserve the right to protest through demonstrations