Mohalenyane Phakela
THE Acting Judge of the High Court, Justice Keketso Moahloli, will on Tuesday preside over a case in which the government wants the court to bar teachers from embarking on strike to press the government for salary increments and improved working conditions.
The case was supposed to have been heard on Friday but on that day the government’s lawyer, Advocate Mofoka, asked the court to postpone the matter to the 19th of February. Adv Mofoka said the postponement was necessary to give the two parties a chance to amicably resolve their differences through dialogue.
Addressing the court on Friday, Adv Mofoka said, “we hereby apply for the review of the Labour Appeal Court decision which allowed teachers to go to strike and we further apply for this court to stay the strike pending finalisation of the review”.
“We have learned that there was a meeting between teachers’ representatives and the ministerial committee where they sought to amicably solve the issues at hand but in the event of failure by the two parties to reach a consensus, we will have to continue with the arguments on Tuesday.”
The Sunday Express has learnt that so far there is no agreement between the two parties and should the stalemate persist, then the government’s application to have the teachers’ strike suspended will proceed on Tuesday.
The latest application comes after last week’s Labour Appeal Court’s dismissal of the government’s 4 February 2019 application to stop the teachers’ strike.
Members of the three teachers’ unions, namely the Lesotho Teacher’s Association (LAT), Lesotho Teachers Trade Union (LTTU) and Lesotho Schools Principals Association (LeSPA) announced their intention to strike after being given the green light by the Directorate of Disputes Prevention and Resolution (DDPR) on 7 February 2019.
The DDPR granted unions the certificate to strike in the aftermath of the failure of the unions and the government to reach a consensus during the conciliation process that was mediated by the DDPR.
According to the DDPR report released last Thursday, the two parties failed to reach an agreement concerning the teachers’ grievances which were first presented to the government on 19 July 2018.
Part of the DDPR report states that “the applicants (teachers) referred a dispute of interest to the DDPR on 19 July 2018”.
“The dispute being ripe for hearing of conciliation, the following issues were raised: salary increases, improved salary payment structure, increased subvention fund, delayed payment of pension and gratuity, 75 percent payment of pension 25 percent payment of gratuity, unavailability of teaching and learning material and repeal of Education Act 2010 (Teaching Service Regulations 2002) as amended in 2016.
“The respondents (Ministry of Education) were of the view that the implementation could only take effect in the 2020/2021 financial year because the government has financial challenges and in addition a budget for 2019 had already been made.”
The DDPR report further states that “the parties reached a deadlock and the dispute remained unresolved”.
“The applicant expressed the desire to pursue an industrial action under such circumstances.”
In a subsequent interview with the Sunday Express, the LTTU Secretary General, ‘Mapitso Molai, said that they hoped that the strike will force their employer to address their grievances.
“We got the certificate to strike on Thursday and in terms of the law, we have to give the employer a seven days’ notice to strike. We have since given notice of our intention to strike and the notice began on 7 February 2019.
“Our industrial action will be one where we will not work for three weeks and only work for one week each month until our grievances are heard.
“We have tried hard to negotiate with our employer but the employer tried to outmanoeuvre us by rushing to the courts while we were still negotiating, so the strike is the only option. If the employer really values the education of Basotho, they will address our issues quickly,” Ms Molai said.
The government subsequently filed a case in the Labour Court on Tuesday challenging the teachers’ intention to strike but the case was dismissed.
The teachers want the government to pay them salary arrears on their performance-based contracts dating back to 2009. They also want the government to pay salaries that are commensurate with their academic and professional qualifications as well as weed out ghost workers from the payroll.
They even want Minister Ntoi Rapapa to sack the Chief Executive Officer of the Teaching Service Department, ’Maselloane Sehlabi, who they accuse of maladministration and being a stumbling block to negotiations between them and the government.
The teachers’ strike threat and their grievances come at a time when the government is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to rein in on its spending.
Among other things, the IMF has spoken of the need for the government to reduce the high public wage bill and undertake public financial management reform.
The IMF has also advised the government to award performance-based salary increments. The IMF prescriptions are inimical to the civil servants and other workers’ demands for wholesale wage increments.
Speaking to the Sunday Express’ sister the Lesotho Times publication a fortnight ago, the head of the IMF mission to Lesotho, Joseph Thornton, dismissed the notion that the IMF demands were inimical to the interests of the teachers and other civil servants.
Mr Thornton said the workers should not focus on short-term gains in the form of salary increments but rather allow the implementation of measures which would ensure the growth of the economy as this would benefit them in the long-term.
“The question is what is in the best interest of the country as a whole and the civil servants, not just in the short term but over the long-term. The overall need is to create jobs, create prosperity and how best can that be achieved?
“In our view, continued expenditure by the government is going to be unsustainable. You can’t create jobs for everyone by giving everyone a public sector job because the government eventually runs out of money and it will run into financing and debt problems and ultimately people will be worse off as a consequence.
“In our view, the best way to ensure a strong economy is to have the private sector as the engine of growth and job creation. That is what we think should be done in Lesotho.
“So, I wouldn’t say that what we are proposing is inimical to the interests of the public sector. I would say it’s more about the long-term interests of the country because the more the country can develop, the richer it becomes and the more country can afford to increase the wages.
“If you increase the wages faster than the rate at which the economy is growing then it becomes unsustainable and you run into the kind of difficulties we are seeing here now where wages as a percentage of the overall size of the economy is one of the highest in the world,” Mr Thornton said.
Asked if in their meetings with workers’ unions, the IMF had pointed out the challenges that would come with giving in to their demands for salary increments, Mr Thornton said, “we have been trying to make this point to the unions”.
“However, the issue is that different groups of workers have different demands going back several years. So, they feel they have some amounts that are owed to them and so when you have a situation like this where there are fiscal difficulties, it is very important that the government shows leadership and ensure that those who are most able to bear the cost of adjustment, bear the highest amount of the burden. So that’s something we have been trying to highlight in our discussions with the government as well.”
The failure to rein in on expenditure is the main reason why the IMF has still not granted the government financial bailout it has sought since June last year.
The government and the IMF have been in discussions since June 2018 for the financial bailout from the IMF which will help to reduce the budget deficit and boost foreign currency reserves.