- Says previous govt ignored int’l calls to unionise prison service
- Union has pressed govt for six years to actualise request
BONGANI MALUNGA
The Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) has appealed to the government to implement unionisation of prison service employees.
BOPEU’S outgoing president Masego Mogwera implored the new government to actualise a matter that at one stage required the intervention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) when the Botswana Government did not accede to the union’s request.
Unsolved
In 2017, BOPEU and other labour federations reported the government to the ILO’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations for failing to ensure that prison officers are eligible for unionisation.
A year after deliberating on the matter, the ILO committee instructed the Botswana Government to make legislative amendments to grant prison services employees freedom to unionise.
No progress
Speaking at the BOPEU Elective Congress at the Majestic Five Hotel in Palapye recently, Mogwera stated that the previous government had violated international labour statutes by refusing to implement the ILO’s recommendations for the past six years.
Bargained
“Over the years, we have bargained about unionisation of the prison service,” she said. “We have tried to press it upon the government to appreciate that the prison service is not part of the disciplined forces and should therefore be unionised.
“The ILO does not consider the prison service as part of disciplined forces under its conventions. The committee stated in its findings that prison staff do not constitute members of the armed forces or the police but rather civil servants.
“They insisted that they should be afforded the guarantees of freedom of association as established in Convention number 87.”
Hope
She applauded the new government for making ministerial portfolio changes for the prison service to become correctional services but said it should go the extra mile and permit unionising them.
“The ILO’s findings were made in 2018,” Mogwera noted. “However, to-date there is no progress. I have hope that you (the Minister of State, Moeti Mohwasa) will ensure that this is done.
“I want to appreciate and thank you honourable ministers for moving a step and allowing prison services to remain as correctional services. To me that’s the starting point.”