*Court orders MVA Fund to disclose management salaries
The Industrial Court has ordered the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund to disclose its management salary structure to the Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) following a protracted dispute that began in 2023.
The legal tussle arose after the MVA Fund announced its intentions to appoint a consultant to review its organisational structure and remuneration framework.
However, when BOPEU requested the MVA Fund to disclose information on all salary bands, MVA only provided information on bands 5 to 7 on grounds that the information on bands 1 to 4, which cover management positions, was not relevant to the negotiations. Furthermore, MVA Fund argued that the information was confidential and was likely to be leaked to a third party.
In her ruling, Justice Sampa Kaisara of the Gaborone Industrial Court dismissed the arguments, after establishing that the information sought was directly linked to the exercise on review of MVA Fund job evaluation.
“In the first instance, the information will be crucial to gauge Respondent’s financial ability to afford the Union’s wage proposals. The unions will have a holistic picture, to assess how its proposals compare with those of other bands across the entire structure,” Justice Kaisara observed.
She further stated that there were other options that could be explored to ensure that the confidential information was not leaked to the wrong people.
According to court records, on April 20, 2023, MVA communicated that a consultant had been engaged to undertake MVA Fund organizational structure review and job evaluation exercise. On November 16, 2023, some reports including MVA draft job evaluation and remuneration structure report were presented to BOPEU for review.
During a meeting held on November 29, 2023, BOPEU formally demanded access to the full salary structure, arguing that it was necessary to assess the impact of its submissions and avoid distortions in the remuneration frameworks.
“A holistic view of the complete MVA Fund remuneration structure will provide the much needed context within which the Union needs to meaningfully apply itself and contribute to the timely completion of the review exercise,” the union argued, assuring MVA Fund of confidentiality.
Despite BOPEU’s assurance, the MVA Fund refused, citing a clause in the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA), which it said limited disclosure to employees represented by BOPEU.
Furthermore, the MVA Fund argued that there was no specific clause in the CLA that compelled them to disclose the management salary structure.
The MVA also insisted that the information sought was not relevant as it fell outside BOPEU’s bargaining unit and that it is private, and will necessitate consent of the affected personnel as set under clause17.3 of the CLA and Section 48 of the Trade Unions and Employers Organizations Act (TUEOA).
BOPEU maintained that refusal to disclose information was equivalent to negotiating in bad faith, an assertion that MVA Fund disputed.
The court has now given the MVA Fund up to the first week of January to disclose the requested information.
