Scarce skill stand-off looms

Government and public sector unions are on a collision course over plans to review the scarce-skills allowances that certain professions in the civil service have been receiving since 2008, Mmegi has learnt.

Speaking recently in Parliament, Finance and Economic Development minister, Peggy Serame said in its current state, the scarce skills allowance was unsustainable for government as 12.1% of civil servants were receiving it, costing government P1.04 billion each year.

Under the scarce skills policy, certain professions within the civil service earn allowances equal to between 15% and 40% of their basic salaries as a way of retaining their skills. The allowance is also designed to attract skills that are required by the civil service.

The finance ministry is carrying out a review of allowances such as the scarce skills, overtime and those for students, as part of cost containment measures required to tighten budget spending.

“The scarce skills allowance was a temporary measure and from its introduction, it was said that there would be a continuous revision to see what was happening locally and also internationally,” Serame said in her response to MPs’ comments on the 2022 Budget Speech recently.

“Since 2008, many things have changed and where there were shortages of skills, in some, we see there are many candidates.

“The allowance needs to be reviewed and we come up with something different to keep skills in the public service.”

Serame added while government acknowledged that there were skills that were in short supply in the civil service, the current application of the skills allowance was unsustainable and different measures needed to be put in place.

“Someone who has been looking for a job for three years gets a job and gets the allowance while others (with the same qualification) are at home looking for jobs. Where is the scarcity?

This is one of the things where many stakeholders have to be taken on board and everyone sees what to replace it with.

“It is a reality that some have been earning this and we don’t want to throw them out.”

Public sector unions have responded swiftly to the plans to review the scarce skills allowance, with the Botswana Federation of Public, Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) deputy secretary-general, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa saying there had been an agreement that the policy would be expanded to more civil servants.

“In negotiations over salaries and conditions of service that took place under the last Public Service Bargaining Council, it was agreed that there will be a review of the scarce skills to accommodate cadres that were supposed to get it but were not,” he told Mmegi this week.

“We are surprised and disturbed that government is now attempting to embark on a path that is unfortunate and bound to cause serious instability in the workplace, loss of morale and loss of some expertise in the public service.”

Motshegwa said BOFEPUSU’s position is that public servants are not paid competitive salaries as indicated by the PEMANDU report commissioned by government and the Tsa Badiri report commissioned by trade unions.

“We hold the position that the scarce skills allowance be renamed the retention allowance to cater for cadres who need some form of inducement to be retained in the public service, as they could be lost to parastatals or the private sector thus causing a shortage of such expertise in the public service.

“This is an occurrence that will ultimately affect service delivery and broadly affect the economy of this country,” he said.

Motshegwa added: “The purpose and intention of the scarce skills allowance remain relevant and important, and there is no way government can stop it unilaterally more so that it forms part of the entitlements to employees emanating from the collective bargaining agreement.

“Employees have already committed such allowances in their mortgage and other loans, and therefore if unilaterally stopped, this will affect the livelihoods of those who have been getting it, and throwing them into financial ruin and embarrassment.”

The scarce skills allowance has been a contentious matter since its introduction, with various professions within the civil service often challenging government demanding that it should cover them too.

In 2010, two years after the introduction of the allowance, the High Court ruled in favour of a group of civil servants who fought government’s decision to remove them from the allowance. The Directorate of Public Service Management had excluded the officials that it felt did not have “technical expertise and skills” from getting the allowance.

In 2015, government again raised the ire of chartered accountants and architects after it proposed cutting them off from the allowance. A leaked Savingram that circulated at the time also proposed cutting off occupational therapists.

The scarce skills allowance is based on recommendations by a Botswana Institute of Development Policy Analysis 2007 study.