Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Secretary General (SG) of the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers Union (NATAU), Narina Pollman has stated that the union followed all procedures and rules with regard to the TransNamib strike that was halted by the High Court.
This is after TransNamib lodged an urgent application to the High Court to defer the nationwide strike, which was scheduled for 18 July, claiming that the union did not follow the correct procedures in organizing the strike.
“We confirm that we were served with an urgent application late Friday afternoon, 15 July 2022, by Kopplinger Boltman law firm. During the court proceedings of 16 July at about 14:00, the management undertook to have the strike deferred that was scheduled for today Monday, 18 July 2022, onwards. However, a court order was issued in abeyance pending the finalization of the urgent application. We are not going to dwell much on procedures not followed, let the court take its course as far as the union is concerned. NATAU has followed the procedures and rules as prescribed in the recognition agreement and Labour act. The court date has been postponed to 29 July,” Pollman said.
Johnny Smith, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TransNamib, claimed that the union carried out a ballot to determine whether the all workers would strike before the strike rules were published.
To this, the SG of NATAU stated that the labour act does not specify when the union could hold the ballot and added that the union had invited TransNamib five times to send an observer to witness the ballot procedures on the strike, but that the company ignored all these requests. The ballots were carried out on 28 April 2022, and published on 29 April.
“These are just delay tactics by the management of TransNamib,” Pollman said, and added that the union has given the Board of Directors of TransNamib and the labour Ministry 48 hours to recall officials implicated in alleged misconduct. The misconduct referred to was flagged in an Ernst and Young report and include dodgy contracts, ineffective utility costs management systems and payment of performance bonuses without a Performance Management System to top executives.
The SG stated that the impending strike is a result of failed salary increment negotiations which have been dragging on from the 2018/2019 financial year.
“In September 2021 we asked for a compromised demand of a 7% increment across the board, but they persisted that there is no money,” Pollman said.
The union secretary further stated that the alienation of TransNamib properties to some workers has exacerbated the situation, as they have been given 30 days to vacate the TransNamib governmental properties they occupied for nearly 30 years.
“We argued that there has been no salary increment for last four years and that they should at least consider accommodating the workers. However, we were told that TransNamib is not a financial institution and that they will not assist the workers,” Pollman concluded.
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