BOSETU wins war for teachers threatened by salary scale reversals
Botswana Sector of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) has finally settled for good, the uneasiness of the last eight years which threatened the livelihoods and progression of some 21 secondary school teachers. The teachers had been living in fear of having to pay back some over-payments as well as having their salary scales and notches of the last eight years reversed.
The Industrial Court ruled in favour of BOSETU and the 21 teachers, and went further to recall the teachers from the Non-formal wing where they had been redeployed.
The 21 teachers, all members of BOSETU, had reaped the windfall of the Level of Operations (LOO) policy of 2013 and were assimilated to D4 salary scale, up from C1.
However a year since the 21 teachers across the country had migrated to D4 salary scale, government started knocking on their doors claiming that they were erroneously upgraded, therefore should pay back the over-payments and revert to their C1 salary scales.
Since 2014, BOSETU had been fighting tooth and nail protecting these teachers with court interdicts from being downgraded from D4 to C1 salary scale as well as having their salaries docked for alleged over-payments dating as far back as 2013.
Government had attempted on three occasions to reverse the upgrading of their salary scale D4, with BOSETU blocking the government’s intentions, while the teachers sighed a relief as they continued to enjoy their D scale salaries and benefits.
The first attempt by government to reverse the migration of the 21 teachers was made in 2014, when BOSETU successfully got an interdict against that intention.
In 2016, government re-launched their offensive against these teachers, demanding that they pay back the over-payments as well as reversing their promotions. Again BOSETU successfully fended off such threats through a court order.
Another two years later, in 2018, the matter would rear its ugly head once again as government demanded to be reimbursed for over-payments of the last four years, as well as demanding to reverse the teachers’ salaries from D scale to C1.
The union was successful once more against government. However this time, the teachers union launched an application to settle this on-and-off drama by government against the union members once and for all, resulting in the judgment secured this month at the Industrial Court. The teachers will now remain at peace knowing that there shall be no more threats of reversal of salary grades and demands to pay for over-payments.
Secretary general Tobokani Rari whose responsibilities among others include litigating on behalf of affected members says the long dragging case could have easily drained the pockets of the affected teachers, as fighting government for a long time like eight years would have left litigants financially broken. “With the protection from the union however, they have been able to secure their jobs, their upwards salary grades and at minimum costs,” Rari said.
Rari added that while he is relieved that the long dragging welfare matter is over, his office continues to battle the government over another matter involving scarce skills benefits for Business and Accounting teachers which has been dragging before the courts for almost three years now.
BOSETU started to litigate on the matter since 2018 and during the process about three court orders were given in favour of the union, including another that held government responsible for failing to implement the order of the court and ordered that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Basic Education be incarcerated.
According to Rari in spite of all these attempts, government continued to defy the court orders. The matter is before the courts for determination. “We feel government is continuously dragging the matter purposefully to stretch the union resources”.
History of the saga:
Employed in 07/08, on C3 scale, the 21 secondary school teachers were seconded to Non-formal education arm but remained in the employ of the Teaching Service Management (TSM).
In 2009, the teachers progressed to C2 salary scale as per policy of TSM. In 2010, TSM gave them options to be redeployed to Nonformal or to remain in TSM. They opted for redeployment. However, they continued to
draw their salaries and benefits from TSM, and their progression was done through filling TSM form five of progression of teachers.
According to court documents the 21 teachers did not receive any form of communication in respect of which positions they would assume at Non-formal, or how they would be remunerated, and the terms and conditions under Non-formal Education.
TSM acceded to their redeployment in 2011. By this time the teachers had progressed to C1 salary scale. More letters were written in 2012 acceding to the teachers’ redeployment, but they remained in TSM and got their salaries from the TSM.
In 2013, seven years since the teachers were seconded to Non-formal, government approved the LOO in the teaching cadre to solve the problem of progression in the teaching service.
At the time of the approval of the LOO, the 21 teachers were on C1 salary scale and were therefore in the year 2013 upgraded/assimilated to D4 salary scale.
Following assimilation to D4 salary scale each of the teachers received letters from TSM for the first time redeploying them to Nonformal Education and to different regions of the country as Adult Education Officer on their present salary scale and notch. Having been upgraded to D4, the applicants modified their lifestyles. They had assumed and undertaken serious financial commitments on the strength of the upgraded salary.
In 2014, Ministry of Education made several attempts to downgrade these teachers to C1, but all attempts at downgrading were interdicted since 2014.
The court found that from the wording of the letters the 21 received from the Ministry of Education about their redeployment to Nonformal in 2012 they (the 21) were still under TSM, and they did not leave the TSM until the date they reported to their new stations around June or July 2014.
This meant that the windfall of LOO in 2013 found the 21 still in TSM and not at Nonformal, and therefore they accordingly benefited as employees of TSM.
Court also found that it was indisputable that from 2009 to 2012 the 21 were upgraded and promoted from C2 to C1 and that upon progression to C1 they were given titles of senior teacher ii while others facilitator at C1, senior teacher I, adult education officer, senior facilitator ii, “they may have been given various titles at Non-formal Education but this should not distract from the fact that they were part of the teaching cadre”.
On December 12, 2013 each of them was written letters by Nnosang Mohutsiwa for Permanent Secretary, deploying them to Nonformal as adult education officers. The title of ‘teachers’ had been erased, consistent with them exiting TSM completely and entering the new workplace territory of Non-formal Education.
The applicants were migrating with their present salary scales and notch, and by this stage they had been assimilated to D4.
The actual effective date of redeployment was to be the date on which each of the applicants assumed duty, June or July 2014.
For six months, from July 2013 to December 2013 the 21 were paid salaries at D4 scale as per the LOO, they would enjoy the LOO benefits for the first half of 2014.
By the time government attempted for the first time to reverse the assimilation and recover the D4 scale salary over-payments, the assimilation was about one year running.
The Ministry says it was a mistake; this would mean the mistake ran for a year, without any intervention by the Ministry.
Court found that, “Government has not advanced any plausible explanation to justify this rather long period of inaction, tardiness and sluggishness”.
In December 2018 the 21 delivered a statement of case for their prayer that their assimilation into D4 scale be judicially confirmed, so that there would be no more attempts at recovering over-payments by the government. The Court found that from 2014 - 2018 government never went to court about the matter of erroneous over-payment, insisting on administrative action to reverse the error. The Court further took issue with fact that government woke up after a year to realise that it had been erroneously overpaying, but no reason for its long inaction was placed before the courts.“Having been allowed to earn salaries at D4 scale for about one year with absolute silence from the direction of government, the 21 were justified in concluding that they had arrived at the coveted scale and were there to stay.”
“They were justified in rearranging their financial and social lifestyles around the D4 scale and away from the C1 scale.”