A planned peaceful demonstration by workers of the Cheetah Cement Factory outside Otjiwarongo was put on hold after the Otjozondjupa Governor, James Uerikua intervened.
More than 200 workers had planned a peaceful demonstration Thursday morning and delivered a petition to Uerikua and the regional council.
The demonstration is being led by members of the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN).
MUN representatives on Thursday told Nampa in an interview they postponed the demonstration indefinitely after they talked to Uerikua, who then also asked them for a briefing on the outcome of a meeting MUN held with the management of the cement factory on Monday.
“Since we did not officially brief him, we saw it necessary to postpone the demonstration to brief him accordingly,” MUN said.
Cheetah Cement General Manager (GM), Kevin Lee on Wednesday told this news agency that Monday’s meeting with the workers and MUN had reached a deadlock after the workers had demanded hefty salary increases that the company cannot afford.
He said the company proposed that employees earning below N.dollars 6 000 a month, receive an increase of N.dollars 800, while those above N.dollars 6 000 get an N.dollars 500, but the workers allegedly refused.
“Management even proposed an introduction of a pension fund to start in January 2023, and also an introduction of a medical aid scheme with an 80 per cent company contribution and 20 from employees, but still workers said they want more,” said Kevin.
Lee further revealed that the manager for human resources and administrations, Zayn Koorts who the employees were allegedly unhappy with, resigned from the company at the beginning of May.
Meanwhile, cement production at the factory remains closed since 10 May 2022 after officials in the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation discovered that Cheetah Cement is non-compliant to some labour laws on the health and safety of employees.
The company still employs 210 Namibian workers and 44 Chinese nationals
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
