BCP 2014 Manifesto Draft Final

3. Establishing a Conducive
Work Environment and
Decent Wages
3.1 Situational analysis
Botswana workers are confronted by multiple challenges that include inadequate
earnings; job insecurity; unsafe working environment; limited social security,
ineffective dispute resolution mechanisms and limited engagement between the
tripartite partners (employer, employee and government). Government has adopted
an anti-trade union stance and perceives organised labour as an impediment to
good governance and economic development. This has resulted in a contaminated
environment among the key social partners and acrimonious exchanges have
become the norm.
The Labour Department is under resourced and lacks capacity to resolve routine
labour disputes, which has resulted in the Industrial Court being flooded with
cases that take up to 4 years to resolve. Employers have no regard for the Labour
Department and employees have lost faith in the Departments’ ability to ensure
justice in the workplace. Low wages have expanded the pool of people who can be
termed as the working poor. Upon retirement, most workers are declared destitutes
on account of limited social security offered by employers.
3.2 Our Social Contract with the Workers
The BCP believes that Batswana have the right to decent work as captured in the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966. We are
committed to pursuing economic policies that are geared at attaining full employment
and according all citizens an opportunity to live a life of dignity in which hard work
guarantees success.
BCP is committed to creating work place justice and democracy where collective
bargaining will be the chief instrument for determining working conditions and
salaries. To this end, we shall:
• Make the Ministry of Labour to be a stand-alone ministry and focus mainly on the
implementation of labour laws, inspections in work places to ensure compliance.
The ministry shall also monitor training and localization programs.
• Recognise trade unions as an integral part of our economic and social development
strategy and treat them as equal partners in the development process.
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BCP 2014-2019 MANIFESTO