Africa-Press – Botswana. Government is working towards aligning and harmonising labour laws and policies in order to avoid contradiction, the Director of the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM), Ms Gaone Macholo, has said.
Addressing public employees in the Kgatleng District in Mochudi on December 13, Ms Macholo said currently, there were four laws that administered the public service: the Employment Act, Trade Unions Disputes Act, Trade Unions Organisations and Employers Organisations Act and Public Service Act.
Ms Macholo said some policies should be consolidated to form a new document that would replace the 1996 general orders and be aligned to the Public Service Act after completion of its review.
She said labour laws should be aligned to international labour standards as they were used interchangeably, or cross referenced. “Sometimes one contradicted the other, hence they should be harmonised to produce conditions of service, she said.
She apprised the meeting that there had been an ongoing project to undertake a holistic review of labour laws with a task team that comprised the tripartite bodies to align provisions of these laws with other employment and labour legislations and bring them to conformity with International Labour Conventions that provide for sound labour relations.
“We have a committee that DPSM engages with which includes trade union federations and Business Botswana,” she said.
She also said the recommendations of the committee would be presented to Parliament and it is hoped that the laws would be in place by March 2024 or anytime thereafter.
Ms Macholo called on public service employees to embrace the Mindset Change campaign and to instil a high performance culture and close all lapses in the public service.
She advised them to memorise the Public Service Charter and to implement the priorities of the Reset Agenda especially digitalisation that calls for paperless approach to work, stating that already pay-slips were digital, hence other services should also go digital.
“It is important that in your work place, you should display the service standards,” she added. “The service standards make you accountable to the people you serve because they hold you accountable.”
The meeting was also informed about the proposed upcoming changes that include Public Service Remuneration Policy and review of the public service salary structure which are to be completed in the 2023/24 financial year.
A private labour consultant, Dr Amin Khan, presented the Remuneration and Salary Structure recommendations that entail moving from a narrow bandwidth to fan shaped structure to cater for those who reach the ceiling by rewarding performance when there are no vacancies to progress to.
He said the proposed fan shaped structure was ideal for creating room for growth and it provided for a competitive pay structure that linked pay to performance to pay.
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