Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN) is threatening to lay a complaint with the Office of the Labour Commissioner against the City of Windhoek for not paying their platoon officers and sub-officers outstanding remuneration.
This was announced in a press briefing by PSUN secretary general Matthew Haakuria, who gave the municipality a period of 12 days to respond to their demands.
According to Haakuria, in 2012, firefighting staff attached to the Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Division in the City of Windhoek applied for the advertised positions of platoon officers and sub-officers.
“However, to their disappointment, they were placed at the minimum and lower guide of their respective salary grades.
After the job review of 2014, it was equally realised that they are wrongly placed, which resulted in underpayment and had to be rectified,” he said.
The PSUN discovered that there are supervisors who are paid less than their subordinates due to this irregularity, Haakuria said.
“We are giving them up to the end of this month to respond or else we will take action, failure to do so, and [sic] we will register a case with the labour commission,” he said.
He said since 2012, the employees have been fighting to be placed on the correct salary scales in their respective grades and to be paid their lost earnings.
“For the last 10 years they have been sent from one office to another with no solution in sight.”
He said the workers were told to follow procedures in raising their complaints, despite the known fact that the available policy guidelines do not cater for this type of dispute.
Haakuria intervened in the matter last year and was equally told to follow procedures.
According to PSUN, the affected employees have suffered economically and the growth value of their pensions has been negatively affected.
“They lost out on potential income from overtime payment due to reduced salaries. There was no progression in terms of salary notches over the services rendered to the City of Windhoek.
“The anomalies do not end here, as there are similar cases at the waste management division, where a number of staff members were identified to act in supervisory positions without being remunerated, despite policy provisions to that effect,” he said.
Haakuria said employees are told they acted voluntarily and thus cannot be remunerated.
This is highly irregular and a serious exploitation of workers, he said.
“The Ministry of Urban and Rural Development is squarely to blame for this mess as the curse continues: Otjiwarongo Municipality, Rundu Town Council, Outjo municipality and others,” he said.
According to one of the affected employees, a platoon officer at the City of Windhoek, Mushupi Thimoteus, when he applied for his position, he realised his salary was not the same as that of co-workers of the same rank.
Thimoteus also spoke on behalf of all the affected employees.
“We are not happy and are looking forward to a positive outcome. They owe us about N$8 million but the figure has changed as time goes,” he said. City of Windhoek spokesperson Harold Akwenye did not respond to questions by the time of going to print.
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