Africa-Press – Botswana. The Ministry of Finance is not in possession of information suggesting that local commercial banks including Standard Chartered Bank are carrying out internal labour related processes offshore.
However, he advised that every bank had an employee relations unit responsible for in-country employee relations matters, to ensure compliance with Botswana labour laws and local disciplinary procedures, Acting Minister of Finance, Mr Shawn Ntlhaile told Parliament recently.
He further explained that disciplinary processes were conducted in accordance with internal policies that had been approved by the local board.
“This notwithstanding, most commercial banks in Botswana are subsidiaries of regional or international banking groups and may from time to time leverage specialised resources,” said Mr Ntlhaile.
He noted that in the case of Standard Chartered Bank Botswana Limited (Stanchart), the bank had a designated head of employee relations stationed in Botswana who was responsible for ensuring that the labour laws and the disciplinary processes of the bank were aligned to the requirements of the country.
However, he said it was important to note that Stanchart was a subsidiary of a global banking group and in some instances, a presiding officer stationed in a different country might be appointed to attend to a case guided by the local legal and regulatory requirements and the local head of employee relations would be in attendance to ensure procedural and substantive fairness in compliance with local requirements.
The minister was responding to a question by Kgatleng Central MP, Mr Mpho Morolong who had asked the minister if he was aware that internal processes for conducting disciplinary hearing by some local commercial banks particularly Standard Chartered Bank, were conducted offshore.
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