The Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation has extended a collective agreement on minimum wages and conditions of employment to the entire construction sector, effective 03 November 2021.

A media statement issued on Thursday by Acting Executive Director in the ministry, Lydia Indombo, said the extension follows a request by the Construction Industries Federation (CIF) of Namibia and the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (MANWU).

She said the two parties entered into a collective agreement early this year and it was only binding to their members. Therefore, the extension means that the collective agreement is now binding to both their members and non-members for a period of two years, and the new collective agreement replaces the one that has been in force for the past three years as published in the Government Gazette of 11 April 2018.

“Categories of workers in the construction industry, the top earners among the artisan category are the security guards per 12-hour shift on site who will earn an amount of N.dollars 130.80 per hour compared to N.dollars 127.49 they previously used to earn. They are followed by their fellow artisans of leading hand steel fixer and leading hand welders who will be getting N.dollars 51.08 per hour,” said Indombo.

She added that the semi-skilled category is topped by joiners, who will be earning an amount of N.dollars 26.53 per hour with scaffolders to earn the lowest amount of N.dollars 18.66 per hour.

The collective agreement cautions against the reduction of remuneration in terms of low productivity levels.

“An employer must not reduce the pay of an employee if the minimum productivity levels are not reached without addressing the employee’s performance and the employer has to firstly resort to providing additional training before initiating disciplinary or incapacity procedures,” stated Indombo.

She further added that the agreement spares construction industry workers from poor working environments and advocates for a safer working environment with the intention of attaining performance standards and productivity levels.

“For performance standards and productivity levels to be achieved, there must be normal working conditions with sufficient back up of materials of specified quality so that production outputs can be reasonably obtained.”

Source: The Namibian Press Agency