11/08/2026
Manual Workers Union letter to the Minister of Labour
"10 August 2026
The Honourable Minister
Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs
Private Bag 002
Gaborone
Dear Honourable Minister,
RE: REJECTION OF PROPOSED INTRODUCTION OF CENTRALIZED BARGAINING AND DEFENSE OF DECENTRALIZED BARGAINING THROUGH RECOGNITION AGREEMENTS
1. Please receive this correspondence as a formal objection of government’s intention to introduce centralized bargaining in the public service. We view this proposal as a direct attack on decentralized bargaining and on organizational rights of public service trade unions as currently secured through Recognition Agreements.
2. We acknowledge that the Public Service Bargaining Collective Council (PSBC) had become dysfunctional over the years. We therefore welcomed the new Public Service Act that reestablished the PSBC and, critically, retained decentralized bargaining through Recognition Agreements between DPSM and individual unions. That model recognized a simple truth that different occupational groups have different conditions, challenges, and bargaining priorities. Teachers, nurses and administrative staff cannot and should not be lumped into one basket under the circumstances.
3. It is in this context that we are alarmed by the current proposal to shift to centralized bargaining. In practice, centralized bargaining will centralize power in one structure and one process effectively killing decentralized bargaining. If all matters of conditions of service are determined at a central table, Recognition Agreements become meaningless. Unions will lose the ability to negotiate matters specific to their members at sectoral and departmental level. This is not reform. It is de-recognition by another name.
4. We are further concerned by the unfortunate decision to remove the Public Service Act reforms from the Labour Law Review Committee. The LLRC was created to deal with three acts being the Employment and Labour Relations Act (ELRA), The Public Service Act (PSA) and Industrial Court Act (ICA). As the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, the LLRC falls within your coordination and has since delivered the ELRA. We are worried by the removal of the PSA from the committee as it provided a forum for transparent review of any new labour legislation. Removing the Act from that process denies unions the right to participate in shaping a law that governs their daily lives. It suggests that the shift to centralized bargaining will be imposed administratively, without the social dialogue required by ILO Conventions 87 and 98, and more imperatively Convention 144, all ratified by Botswana.
5. Additionally, we note reports of Directorate of Public Service Management’s (DPSM) intention to alter existing Recognition Agreements. These agreements are the legal basis upon which unions represent members, access facilities, and bargain on substantive issues. To alter them unilaterally, at the same time as introducing centralized bargaining, is to dismantle the very foundation of union representation in the public service. It is intended to weaken unions, demotivate workers, and ultimately damage service delivery.
6. Honourable Minister, we are not opposed to a functional PSBC. We supported its reestablishment precisely because we want effective national-level bargaining on issues of common interest such as general salary adjustments and conditions that cut across the service. But a functional PSBC must co-exist with, not replace, decentralized bargaining. The two levels are complementary. Centralized bargaining on macro issues and decentralized bargaining on sector-specific issues is the model that works and that respects the diversity of the public service.
7. Therefore, we demand as follows:
a. Abandon the proposal to introduce centralized bargaining that supplants decentralized bargaining through Recognition Agreements. Instead, clarify the roles of the PSBC and Recognition Agreements to avoid overlap and conflict;
b. Reinstate the Public Service Act back to the Labour Law Review Committee for full consultation with all stakeholders before any further amendments; and
c. Engage the DPSM to maintain and respect existing Recognition Agreements and to negotiate any proposed changes with the affected unions within the PSBC framework.
8. We remain committed to dialogue and to making the PSBC work. However, we will not accept a reform that, under the guise of efficiency, erodes trade union rights and silences workers at sector level.
Yours in solidarity
Robert Ronny Rabasimane ( Secretary General )
Gotlamang Oitsile ( President )"
