Debswana Diamond Company has been called upon to mediate in a labor dispute between the Botswana Mining Workers Union (BMWU) and Medupi Mining Services, a locally owned company.
Medupi Mining Services was contracted to provide drilling services under Debswana’s Citizen Economic Empowerment Policy (CEEP), designed to foster socio-economic development in Botswana by leveraging Debswana’s supply chain and influence.
Reports indicate that after Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) and Medupi Mining Services could not resolve their differences relating to labour laws amicably, the Union approached Debswana to intervene and resolve the impasse.
The BMWU has formally notified Medupi Mining Services, the principals at Jwaneng Mine, of their concerns. They have requested Debswana to compel Medupi Mining Services to immediately cease the termination of its employees’ contracts and reinstate them promptly. The Union emphasises that if Medupi Mining Services proceeds with the terminations, Debswana must terminate its contract without delay. Additionally, the Union has informed Debswana that failure to intervene and resolve the impasse would signal support for unethical conduct and employee harassment by Medupi Mining Services.
The union argues that Medupi Mining Services’ refusal to grant it recognition is a violation of Debswana CEEP Policy on the part of the company. The union also demands that Medupi Mining Services must allow its employees “to join a trade union of their choice, at Debswana Jwaneng Mine.” Medupi Mining Services is a citizen-owned company that has been engaged by Debswana under its citizen economic empowerment program (CEEP) to provide blasting and drilling services at its Jwaneng operation.
BMWU says since December 2023, the Union has sought without success recognition from Medupi Mining Services to be its employees’ bargaining agent, after meeting the 1/3 legal threshold adding that Medupi management has unlawfully refused to grant the union recognition and protect and fulfill its employees’ rights.
According to BMWU, the latest reports indicate that Medupi has terminated at least twenty-one (21) employment contracts of employees who had shown a desire to join the union. BMWU claims that Medupi did so under the guise that it had received a notice of contract termination from Debswana Diamond Company, which consequently affected its workers’ continued employment with the company. Upon further probing by the Union, BMWU says, it was revealed that Debswana has in fact extended Medupi’s contract, which nullified Medupi’s earlier justification for the termination of employment contracts. BMWU added that Medupi has been engaged under Debswana’s CEEP policy which compels subcontracting companies to maintain Debswana standards of respecting workers’ rights and engaging in ethical business practices including compliance with the law.
BMWU says Medupi management has violated its principals’ policies and has acted unlawfully in refusing to grant the union recognition under the labour law.
The CEEP strategy seeks to create socio-economic development opportunities for the citizens and deliver a shared citizen spending value of P20 billion and 20,000 jobs by 2024. About P3.35 billion of that amount or 44 percent has already been spent on citizens. In fact, since 2019, Debswana has spent a total of P11 billion on citizens under the CEEP.
Last year, Debswana announced that CEEP would begin to focus on localising key strategic contracts such as fuel and logistics, advancing various manufacturing initiatives, Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM), CEEP transformation, support for local repairs, accelerating business cases on small stock and the chemical production value chain.
