By Neo Kolane
The Lesotho textile and garment workers have been advised to form a bargaining council as a tool to address issues relating to wage hike negotiations within the industry.
A bargaining council is a statutory body established with the sole purpose of regulating conditions of employment within the specific sector.
This follows a recent strike that saw thousands of workers demanding improved working conditions that include wage hike that eventually ended with an increase of 14 percent on monthly pay.
But most unions in the industry have shown discontent about the increase arguing it too little to fend for their welfare.
The public relations officer at the ministry of labour and employment ‘Mamolse Falatsa has urged the unions to form a bargaining council meant to negotiate workers’ demands in the workplace
She said the 14 percent increment was a result of failure to hike workers’ wages in the financial year 202021.
She suggested that the 14 percent increment is a win-win situation intended to “meet the textile and garment workers half-way.”
Last week, the government of Lesotho increased the minimum wage for the workers by 14 percent, a figure that was much higher than the eight percent the employers had proposed.
Over the past two months, the struggle for better pay by workers ignited clashes with the law enforcement agencies resulting in some workers losing their lives.
The violent clashes invited heavy criticism of the Lesotho police from different quarters where they were accused of being heavy handedness in dealing with labour disputes.
The lowest employee in the textile industry earns about M1 900 while some earn around M2 500, and a 14 percent hike will take the two earners to M2 166 and M2 850 respectively.
However, some unions within the sector are taking none of it saying the increase is far from what they demanded. They were demanding a 20 percent increase.
Thedeputy secretary general of Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL), May Rathakane said that the bargaining council was agreed by employers and employees and the government conducted a study on the issue in the neighbouring South Africa in 2017.
The study was welcome and recommendations were made to the National Advisory Committee on Labour (NACOL), but has not been enacted as law.
Rathakane lashed out at the politicians who he said do not want to enact the recommendatiuons into law.
“When it comes to the legislation regarding the workplace, the government is hesitant to enact such laws allowing for exploitation of the workers by investors who want to pay low wages,” Rathakane said.
“The investors will only come to Lesotho when the exploitation is high and that makes it hard for our laws to be passed,” he said.
He judged that the bargaining council would play a highly needed role in the workplace.
“We wish the government would allow for a setting of the bargaining council in order to enable a stable workforce that would negotiate workers’ pay,” he remarked.
The Lesotho Textile Exporters Association (LTEA) has briefly admitted that negotiations for a hike in wages were held but that the association was in disagreement with the unions’ demands.
The association has said the law allowing for a 14 percent increase has been passed and was thus binding to both workers and the employers.
It does not foresee any possibility of the gazette wages being reversed for review.
Labour relations lawyers Paul Sesenyi recently told this publication that there is currently a review of the Labour Code Act as amended and he hoped one of the issues to be addressed in that new law is the creation of bargaining councils.
“For example, there could be a bargaining council on textile and manufacturing sector, security sector and construction sector as few examples. They are given the legal authority to resolve trade disputes and enter into sector binding agreements. Their decisions are subject to review by superior courts within the jurisdiction. Since each council can have its own rules and procedures, that in itself makes bargaining easy. Once a trade union falling within the jurisdiction of the particular council meets the threshold for joining, it enjoys the benefits associated with such bargaining council even if it may individually lack the capacity to negotiate alone with the employer on company level.
“The negotiation process is left to the parties without the intervention of the government. They can decide on the implementation date of the newly negotiated salaries without necessarily impacting on other sectors which are not parties to such a council. As it is, both the employers and employees’ representation within the WAB is not evenly balanced, in fact some sectors have no representation at all.
“That means employees in such sectors have no option but to accept and take what has been decided upon on their behalf by those sectors having representation in the WAB. These equally applies to the employers. These are but some of the advantages of the bargaining councils.”
