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How many days' basic wage the law says a qualifying worker is owed after continuous service ends — worked from Botswana's statutory formula, not a rule of thumb.
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Continuous service with the same employer — a break in employment can restart the count. Only completed months count.
Basic pay only — before overtime, allowances or bonuses. That is what the law counts.
The law does not add severance on top of a pension or gratuity already paid.
60 days' basic wage
Approximately P 6,000.00, on the estimate below.
The law states this in days of basic wage, not a set amount of money — the days figure above is exact. The money total assumes a wage divided over a 30-day month; the Department of Labour may work it out differently, so treat the money figure as a guide, not a quote.
BCL Limited's copper-nickel mine closed in 2016 and displaced over 5,000 workers; a decade on, the government has still not published the formula behind its own promised BCL "soft landing" package. What follows is not that package — it is the general statutory floor every qualifying worker in Botswana can check for themselves, whoever their employer was.
Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs — Department of Employment Services
This is the national ministry line (toll-free). Ask for the Selebi-Phikwe district labour office for an in-person query.
BCL's own "soft landing" is a separate, unpublished scheme
At the 2016 closure, government promised former BCL employees an "18-month soft landing" and reaffirmed this at a January 2026 consultation, but the payout formula has never been published — a task force is still developing what it calls "compensation modalities." This calculator cannot estimate that package; it can only tell you the general legal floor.
A new Employment and Labour Relations Bill is pending
A bill to repeal and re-enact the Employment Act was gazetted in June 2025 but had not come into force as of September 2026. If it changes severance terms, this page's formula will need updating — check the date on the source line below.
What this is, and is not
This is the general statutory floor under the Employment Act, worked from your own numbers — it is not legal advice, not a guarantee, and not any specific employer's own severance or retrenchment package. The Department of Labour and Home Affairs, or a court, decides what is actually owed in any individual case.
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