The Botswana Postal Services is reported to be facing numerous law suits coming from its former employees who were allegedly unfairly dismissed from work as well as from those who are querying their exit packages.
Gaborone lawyer, Kgosietsile Ngakayagae, has confirmed that he is dealing with a case in which 11 former employees of BPS are suing the former employer on a matter related to their exit packages which they were long supposed to have been paid.
Ngakayagae declined to give more details on what they are exactly querying about the package but one of the 11 former employees, who declined to give his name, said that their law suits against BPS followed after they had learnt their exit packages had been greatly reduced from what they had originally agreed upon with BPS.
“We were greatly shocked by this discovery and we have queried it even with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Thato Raphaka, but got no relief. We then felt that it was only better to seek relief in Courts,” said the source.
Last month an arbitrator, Brains Kwadipane, ordered BPS to reinstate its former employee, Gagosepe Mayanda, with a full year’s pay plus all benefits she could have accrued had she not been dismissed from work unfairly.
Manyanda, who was an executive member of Botswana Postal Services Union, was dismissed from work for having used BPS email for Union work. In his order, the arbitrator said it was odd that she had been dismissed for using BPS email when the Union is recognized by BPS and the letter was being emailed to the management of BPS.
Sources in BPS say that there are many cases of employees of BPS having dismissed employees for unfair and trivial reasons pending before different Courts in the country.
“BPS is literally choking with law suits of unfair dismissals as we speak and in most cases, employees have been dismissed for trivial issues,” said the source.
Asked to comment on the reports, BPS Public Relations Officer, Lebogang Bok, could only confirm that Manyanda had been reinstated as ordered by the arbitrator but denied that there are other law suits pending against BPS.
“I do not know anything about us choking with law suits. I only know about Manyanda’s case and that she has been reinstated as was ordered by the arbitrator,” she said.
