Labour consultancy aims to help workplace relations
Lewanika Timothy | Tuesday August 22, 2023 06:00
Dipogiso is the curator and corporate leader of Labour Policy Experts Botswana, a company that offers specialised consultancy on labour policy matters and human resource policy development.
Speaking to Monitor Business last week, Dipogiso said he has set out to tackle the skewed labour-employer relations that for the longest time in the country have led to a clash of the two.
“Our mission is focused on building fair workplaces through the provision of affordable labour and industrial relations consultancy services to the private, parastatal and public sectors,” he said.
Dipogiso, who is a former Political Science lecturer at the University of Botswana, revealed that the company’s main goal is to help managers comply with the country’s labour requirements in order to enhance compliance with labour statues.
“The idea is to assist managers to undertake labour relations in accordance with the local legislation and to infuse international best practice in their daily experiences. “Furthermore, we seek to improve the dilapidating labour relations dispensation in the country by providing training and carrying out labour market research to enhance policy development in the country,” he said.
The labour ground has proved to be a dynamic environment and changes in legislation have compelled all companies to adhere strictly to all the changes implemented by the Department of Labour. According to Dipogiso, without specialised labour consultancies, employers will find it difficult in legal conflicts with employees or trade unions, therefore resulting in a huge consequent financial risk.
Speaking of the company’s competitive advantage, Dipogiso said Labour Policy Experts Botswana is flexibly created to work along all labour related organs, allowing them to partner with unions and other labour stakeholders to better local working conditions.
“My idea is not to compete with anyone, but to attempt to work together with all institutions that deal with labour related matters. “Additionally I don’t not know of any company that does labour related market research apart from Statistics Botswana,” he said.
Currently the company is faced with hurdles to overcome, amongst which involve what Dipogiso calls “institutionalised laxity” which he says is the “business as usual” way of undermining the rights of workers in Botswana.
This, he said, makes it difficult for the company to penetrate the market.
“The main challenge is institutionalised laxity in the workplace and dilapidated labour relations institutions resulting from underdeveloped policies,” he said.
He said the next step for Labour Policy Experts Botswana is to register a training institute that is accredited with the relevant authorities in the country, in order to provide labour relations courses.