Litigation looms as BTC goes ahead with Restructuring

‘BTC is acting in bad faith and secretive’ BOTEU to report BTC to labour commissioner The dispute between BTC and its employees’ union over restructuring and retrenchment has reached a new level where court action is the likely course. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type="show" ihc_mb_who="1,2,3,4" ihc_mb_template="1" ] This comes hardly two weeks after the Industrial Court ordered BTC to stop its restructuring and retrenchment exercise to allow the company to meet with the BTC employees’ union to resolve their differences. The court also told BTC to withdraw its retrenchment notice. A consultation meeting between BTC management and Botswana Telecommunication Employee Union (BOTEU) was scheduled for 6 October 2022 for continuation of the consultation process. However, a day before the meeting was due to take place, General Manager BTC - Support Services & Human Resources, Mmamotse Wilkinson, reportedly notified employees by letter that consultations between the union and the management had come to an end, and the company was proceeding with restructuring. But the president of Botswana Telecommunications Union (BOTEU), Kewetse Busumane, considers this a breach of what the union and BTC management had agreed in meetings before demonstration of bad faith by BTC. Busumane said the union could not proceed with the 6 October meeting when BTC was going ahead with restructuring. He noted that one of the agreements between the union and management was that a joint statement would be issued to employees relating to consultations. BOTEU is perturbed that BTC adopted and implemented a new structure without its input. “Restructuring presupposes that the company has developed a new structure with the objective to reduce costs and rationalise,” Busumane said in a letter addressed to Wilkinson. “In this case, the union was advised that the exco is absorbed in the new structure and they would not be affected by retrenchment,” stated Busumane. He argued that absorption of the exco in the new structure means the structure was adopted and implemented without prior consultations. Busumane said the union had requested information about costs of the exco to the company but BTC refused to avail such information until the consultation process was terminated. “There is no how the union can engage in consultations without information relating to the costs of the employees to the company and refusal with relevant information renders engagement ineffective,” he wrote to Wilkinson. “Naturally, costs of employees are ballooned by the exco, in this case hefty salaries and allowances which come at a serious cost to the company.” In the union’s view, the costs of the exco to the company should be scrutinised with a view to reducing them and saving jobs. It believes the process targeted junior employees because they are the only ones affected. Busumane noted that management was mapped out in the structure without having to apply while employees are forced to apply for positions in the structure. “Therefore, there is a disparity in the implementation of the process,” he argued. He asserted that since there are no known criteria, placement is done in secrecy and no one knows how anything is implemented. “Employees with qualifications and skills for their positions are declared redundant without any apparent reasons,” he said in the letter. It turns out that the union does not even know how many employees are affected by the process. “At some point, it (BTC) said that 230 employees would be affected and further information provided at the last meeting indicates that 271 employees would be affected,” Busumane said. He noted that a universal letter is being issued to employees without stating why they are redundant while BTC is recruiting people from outside the telco before employees are mapped or placed. “This clearly indicates that the motive is not retrenchment but dismissal of employees,” Busumane wrote to Wilkinson. BOTEU has labelled the process substantively and procedurally unfair and has decided to report BTC to the Commissioner of Labour “with a view to bringing the proceedings to the Industrial Court”. While the union battles to at least see its members exit the company in line with laid down procedures, some of those affected by the process have accused BTC management, specifically Wilkinson, of aiming to cheat them out of their terminal benefits. BTC responds Meanwhile, BTC has declined to answer questions sent to the telco regarding these allegations against it. “Out of respect for the process and due to the confidentiality of the nature of discussions, we will not discuss the details of the restructuring exercise and any staff issues with the media,” said BTC Head of Stakeholder Relations, Lesego Goitsemang. “Our failure and/or omission to respond to any averments in your questionnaire should not be construed as an admission thereof.” She, however, stated that it is not correct that BTC did not consult the union and/or affected employees in good faith and that the restructuring process was both substantively and procedurally unfair. “Throughout this process, BTC engaged in meaningful consultations with the union and/or affected employees,” said Goitsemang. “The consultations were done in accordance with the law and the parties’ signed Recognition Agreement.” With regard to Wilkinson, Goitsemang responded: “We also wish to state that the allegations and/or actions you have attributed to an officer of the company in your questionnaire are not true and (are) misleading as the said officer in the discharge of her duties was acting on behalf of the company.” [/ihc-hide-content]

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Litigation looms as BTC goes ahead with Restructuring

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