Africa-Press – Botswana. Members of Parliament have been implored to allow government time to entrench decent work as a right in the Constitution of Botswana.
Specially Elected Member of Parliament, Ms Boitumelo Gofhamodimo made the call when she contributed to a debate on a proposition that the ‘right to work’ be amended to read as ‘right to decent work’ in the Constitution Amendment Bill of 2024 that is currently at committee stage before the National Assembly.
Ms Gofhamodimo, who is also Assistant Minister for State President, said such dispensation was already supported by ongoing work to implement the decent work agenda that Botswana had adopted.
She said some good work was ongoing regarding the decent work programme and Botswana was in the right direction, adding at an appropriate time, the minister responsible would brief Parliament on progress made by government in the ambition for implementation of the decent work agenda.
“When Botswana is ready in terms of preparedness for attaining the right to decent work earmarked for 2030 that would be the right time to bring the right to decent work into the Constitution,” she said.
She added that the right to work was a major step in ensuring rights of Batswana with regard to work were protected.
“We have progressively moved towards this right by adopting some policies and ratifying the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions which speak to a number of concerns regarding rights of employees at work. This is how we move as a country to move in to adopt right to work,” she said.
She argued that the right to work was not far from what was being proposed by MPs from the opposition aisle.
Member of Parliament for Bobonong, Mr Taolo Lucas, had noticed an amendment in the Bill to have ‘right to work’ be amended to read ‘right to decent work’.
Mr Lucas proposed that the second generation rights proposed were fundamental, but not motivated enough in the Bill.
He therefore, proposed that the right to work be aligned with the ILO convention articles on ‘the right to decent work’ because such qualified the kind of rights to be enshrined. He said enshrining right to decent work would put Batswana in a position to know if their rights were threatened.
The proposed amendment was however rejected by Parliament. Meanwhile, about 61 amendments have been noticed for clauses by clause interrogation by MPs.
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