90 BDVC workers to be retrenched - PHK

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Wednesday February 27, 2008 00:00

Briefing Parliament this week, the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Ponatshego Kedikilwe said BDVC will make every effort to ensure redeployment of its staff to the new company and its acquisition of new skills before any retrenchment cab be made.

Full financial and other support - including finding new employment - will be extended to the less than 90 employees likely to be retrenched.

Kedikilwe's briefing follows a question by the MP for Gaborone South, Akanyang Magama regarding the fate of BDVC employees after the establishment of DTC Botswana. Kedikilwe said senior management held extensive consultations with the BDVC union, staff and management representatives out of which an agreement on a wide range of issues was reached.

The consultations covered structures of the new company, criteria for and implementation of voluntary separation, updates on timelines for voluntary separation and placement of individuals at DTC Botswana.

Kedikilwe said misgivings regarding the consultation process were expressed at a meeting he had held with a delegation of the BDVC union in July last year; a point of contention was that earlier undertakings appeared to have been abandoned. Kedikilwe said based on future roles and skills requirements of DTC Botswana, jobs were in the process of being filled through either placement or internal and external advertising. 

The minister said training of BDVC staff for the new challenges had been ongoing for a number of years and that staff had been seconded to DTC London and elsewhere for the acquisition of new skills. 

Additional training was taking place with sorting staff to ensure continuation of their technical development. Kedikilwe said the final impact on staff complement at DTC Botswana would not be known for a few weeks.