Out of the country on urgent business, unable to attend court
The University of Botswana Academic and Senior Support Staff Union (UBASSU) suffered a setback on Tuesday (July 9, 2024) when the Court of Appeal (CoA) postponed their case against their employer due to Advocate, Duma Boko’s unavailability.
The Union is attempting to overturn an Industrial Court ruling, which declared its members are not linked to the public service and therefore not automatically entitled to salary adjustments and other benefits enjoyed by public servants.
However, their hopes were put on hold for another six months after Boko, who is also leader of the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), revealed he was out of the country.
“It is with regret that I must communicate at this late hour that I have been unable to reschedule my commitments to accommodate the current hearing date owing to the need to process multiple visas to facilitate the travel and the difficulty faced with rescheduling the urgent business that necessitated the said travel. I kindly request that the hearing be rescheduled to a later appeal session whereat I guarantee my full availability. I understand that this may cause inconvenience and apologize for the disruption this may cause,” reads part of Boko’s letter to the instructing attorney, Boingotlo Toteng, dated 9th July.
Unimpressed, UB’s attorney, Seranne Junner opposed the postponement, noting Boko confirmed his availability when the matter was called in the roll call last month.
Although Toteng hinted at his readiness to continue, the CoA admitted it had not read the papers as it had already prepared for a postponement. The matter was postponed to January with costs.
UBASSU wants the CoA to declare UB managements’ refusal to adjust staff salaries as a breach of agreement and unlawful, as well as its decision to stop payment of performance-based reward.
In 2022, the Industrial Court upheld the University’s argument that only the Vice Chancellor and Professors’ salaries and bonuses are linked to the Public Service salary increments and that UBASSU members are not automatically entitled to such perks.
The Union maintains this ruling was wrong.
UBASSU further argued that; “Section 37 of the Trade Disputes Act provides that a Collective Labour Agreement shall be binding upon the parties thereto and that by virtue of this, the parties were and continue to be under legal obligation to follow the provisions of their CLA of which UB has failed to do.”
They insist the CLA states UB shall not implement any negotiable matters without prior negotiation with the Union and must bargain in good faith on issues pertaining to working conditions, remuneration, employment benefits and collective bargaining relationship among others.
The presiding judges are Isaac Lesetedi, Tebogo Tau, and Edwin Cameron.
