Botswana - Postal union gets reprieve from court

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The Industrial Court has granted the Botswana Postal Services Workers Union (BPSWU) a reprieve to temporarily stop the rationalising exercise where employees of the Botswana Post stand to lose their jobs.

The union had lodged an urgent application this past week, on grounds that the haste with which management of Botswana Post has handled and continues to handle the rationalisation exercise and its sudden, unlawful and unmerited departure without valid reason from mutual engagement has precipitated a very unfair and unacceptable situation which leaves the livelihood of dozens of employees hanging in the balance.

This was after the chairperson and deputy of the BPSWU were dismissed from work, on what the union believes are trumped-up charges.

The union chairperson Gagosepe Manyanda was dismissed from work on January 27, for allegedly abusing the company email when she responded to an email from board member, Tsetsele Fantan who had responded to a weekly brief. In the email, Fantan is said to have stated the need to have "new blood also at board level to stop the losses that the company was experiencing."

Manyanda is said to have responded that they were pained as employees of BPS to hear such words from a board member and later said she was responding as a union chairperson. She was dismissed for gross insubordination for responding directly to Fantan's email and ignoring the protocol of dealing with management and not directly with board members.

The rationalisation exercise is said to have commenced on February 16, 2011 when Sort Centre employees were told that the sorting machine had arrived and adverts would be circulated requiring the employees to re-apply for their posts.

The following day as according to the affidavit the employees were served with the advert and employees advised that February 17, 2011 was the deadline for submission of applications.

The employees were advised on February 17, that they would be availed for counselling on February 18, while interviews for the posts were scheduled for February 19. The update on the success of their application was said to be two days later in February 21, 2011.

In their founding affidavit by the vice-chairperson, Mogotsi Maruping, sometime in 2009 the union was informed by their management that they wished to purchase a letter-sorting machine and advised that the sorting centre would be relocated to a new warehouse at Block Three in Gaborone. The purpose of the machine would be to sort mail, a function that hitherto was done manually by employees, according to Maruping.

He stated that in late 2009,management of Botswana Post invited union representatives to travel with them to South African companies where they were treated to a demonstration and oral presentation on the machine.

According to the affidavit, among the union representatives was Manyanda who showed interest in knowing the implications of the use of the machine on jobs at the sort centre. She is reported to have asked a question of how many people would be required to operate the machine which question drew intense reprimand from the director general, Pele Moleta who is said to have criticised her in front of the attendants for being fearful of change. The presenter however revealed that the machine would be operated by 10-15 people.

Upon return the Executive Management Committee was briefed by the delegation, while the Botswana Post public relations officer, Keoagile Rafifing who was not part of the visiting delegation briefed the union executive at a Joint Negotiating Consultative Forum (JNFC).

However it is said that around December 2009, employees at the sort centre were told there would be retrenchments while those employees made redundant would be redeployed.

According to management, as stated in the founding affidavit, all efforts would be made to ensure that employees did not lose jobs and that in the event job losses became inevitable, appropriate consultations would be made with the union.

Subsequent thereto, without reference to the union, management authored correspondence to some employees warning them of possible retrenchment arising out of the procurement of the sorting machine. The said letters were dated October 26, 2010.

The affidavit further stated that on December 10, 2010 management informed the union that the sort centre was nearing completion and then promised to take the union executive on a tour, a promise which to date remains unfulfilled.

It is stated that at the same meeting management of Botswana Post started talking about an exit package for employees who are likely to be affected by a rationalisation exercise resulting from the procurement of the machine.

The leader of the union said it was then that they became alarmed because until then there had been no word from management suggesting that employees would be negatively affected resulting in no negotiations with the union or the employees themselves.

The affidavit stated that the exit package used was an old one that had been designed for the restructuring exercise, which was since aborted on account of lack of funding by government.

According to Maruping, the union objected to the package and challenged management to produce documentation showing that there had been due compliance with the law but failed to do so. The union also found out that BPS failed to make correspondence or initiated any process with the Commissioner of Labour as required by law.

When they enquired from the head of human resources, Courtney Sethebe he told them that the letter to the commissioner was written on or about June 17, 2010 but said he could not furnish the union with a soft copy that he had said they have. The Post Industrial Relations Officer Moathodi Mothale informed the unionists that it was difficult for them to locate the hard copy from the file. When they returned to the Commissioner of Labour they were shown a letter dated January 21, 2011 that was not copied to the union as notification of an intended rationalisation exercise and apologised for a purportedly written letter on December 14, 2010, which did not reach their office. "To us this was clear indication that management had no respect for the union, for the legal processes, let alone good faith in their dealings with the union and with the employees.

They had in all the circumstances of the case been untruthful to us as employee representatives. This attitude continues to date," Maruping said in the affidavit. Ngakaagae and Mbikiwa Legal Practice represent BPSWU in the matter, while Collins Newman and Company represents Botswana Postal Services in the matter.