Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana Federation of Public, Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) have called for a wage increase for employees to address the rising inflation and high energy prices.
Speaking during the Labour Day Commemoration in Gaborone on Monday, the chairperson of BOPEU’s David Ntsimele Magang Region, Mr Naledi Nfana said prices of necessities were on the rise, adding that the five per cent salary increase was not sustainable.
Mr Nfana called for fair wages that would enable employees to survive the difficult times, noting the prices of electricity, food, fuel and other necessities had gone up.
He said wages should be adjusted to the realities of the increased cost of living.
He said there were workers who earned the same salary for more than three years, yet food prices were soaring.
Mr Nfana pointed out that the a few elites were in control of the economy and that could not be accepted hence the need to stand and fight for improved salaries.
He therefore said it was high time the employers together with the government improved workers’ salaries.
“We call upon the government to implement the Pemandu as it will curb most of these challenges of salary disparities of the working class,” he said adding that workers need a fair stake in the economy.
The day, held under a theme: Demanding Workers’ Rights and Economic Power, Mr Nfana said could not have come at a better time as workers were faced with difficult conditions especially in the work places.
He also mentioned that there was need to advocate for safe working environment, adding that there was need to have a Safety Health Educators (SHE) in the workplace.
Sharing the same sentiment, the chairperson of BLLAHWU Gaborone Branch, Mr Kabelo Moreetsi also said inflation had suffocated salaries.
Mr Moreetsi said workers were concerned about the apparent erosion of their purchasing power owing to stagnant wages against the fast-growing rate of inflation.
“Workers are being unreasonably denied increments including being cushioned against inflation, where they are some meagre increments, such are not consummate with the rate of inflation,” he said, adding that had deteriorated the living standards of the working class and the public, as it was those workers who took care of their families.
Mr Moreetsi also called for the setting up of a standard minimum wage for Batswana working for the retail or energy industry, earning as low as P900 should be a cause for concern.
Furthermore, he said the minimum wage set should be informed by research on basic living standards to enable workers to have decent lives and be able to support their families.
Among other challenges, Mr Moreetsi said they were concerned about the high rate of retrenchment amid the high rate of unemployment in Botswana, adding that following COVID-19, the country experienced a lot of retrenchments and some companies used the pandemic as a scapegoat to retrench.
Mr Moreetsi said labour laws were not explicit about what should happen when companies retrenched employees based on non–profitability especially in relation to engagement with labour.
He therefore said it was time for labour laws to make it mandatory for companies to avail financials of the company to workers in cases of retrenchments based on non–profitability, as well as prioritise workers’ plight when companies got liquidated.
He called upon government to assess those laws with a view to bring amendments to Parliament in an endeavor to protect workers.
Mr Moreetsi said BOFEPUSU was worried about the deteriorating state of industrial relations in Botswana, amongst them the refusal to engage meaningfully with unions which had been experienced year in and year out, adding that social dialogue structures had terribly deteriorated.
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