Mohalenyane Phakela
STRIKING teachers will only engage in talks with the government on condition the latter drops its lawsuits against the teachers, reinstates those who have been fired for striking and undertakes to award all teachers an eight percent salary increment in the next financial year.
This was said by the chairperson of the Lesotho Teacher’s Association (LAT), Letsatsi Ntsibolane, in an interview with the Lesotho Times this week.
Mr Ntsibolane’s remarks came against the background of the strike which began this week by members of LAT, the Lesotho Teachers Trade Union (LTTU) and the Lesotho Schools Principals Association (LeSPA).
The strike proceeded despite desperate measures by the government which included a High Court application to stop the strike.
On Tuesday, the Acting High Court judge, Keketso Moahloli referred the government’s application to the Labour Court saying the lower court should be addressing such issues.
“At this juncture it is not my function to pronounce on who can or cannot go on strike,” Justice Moahloli said.
“The labour code is very clear about labour disputes and any party has the right to file a legal case…not in this court but the court a quo (lower court).”
Another measure by the government was last Tuesday’s setting up of an inter-ministerial committee to help the Minister of Education and Training, Professor Ntoi Rapapa to address the teachers’ complaints. The teachers’ grievances include demands for the government to pay them salary arrears on their performance-based contracts dating back to 2009.
The teachers 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.
The committee is chaired by the Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Thesele ‘Maseribane. Other members of the committee are Prof Rapapa; Public Service Minister, Semano Sekatle; Defence Minister, Tefo Mapesela; Minister of Energy, Tsukutlane Au, Minister of Finance, Moeketsi Majoro and the Minister of Home Affairs, Mokoto Hloaele.
Last Wednesday, Chief ‘Maseribane told the media that the teachers’ grievances were genuine and the government was still working to resolve them.
He said the grievances were longstanding and would take time before they could be resolved. He appealed that in the meantime, the teachers should consider dropping the strike and go back to work.
But the teachers are forging head with their industrial action and this week, Mr Ntsibolane said they would resume negotiations on condition the government meet their three demands.
“We have met the ministerial committee on two occasions and the only thing we did was to present our terms to them,” Mr Ntsibolane said, adding, “we will engage in talks once our terms have been met”.
“We cannot engage in talks with people who are fighting us so we want them to drop all cases court cases against teachers. We want them to reinstate teachers who were dismissed for fighting for teachers’ grievances.
“Last but not least, we have been fighting over the salaries for teachers for a long time and during that time the cost of living has gone up. So, we demand that we be awarded an eight percent salary increment when the budget is announced for the next financial year.
“The ball is in the government’s court now as we finally got them where we want through the strike. It is up to them to quickly address our concerns or we will continue working for just one week per month until further notice.”
