The employees of the Namibia Housing Enterprise (NHE) have voted in favor of engaging in industrial action, with 90 per cent of the employees voting in favor of the strike.

This was announced on Friday by the Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN), after members of the union, who are also employees of NHE, conducted their ballots on whether or not to strike on the same day.

This comes after a press conference was held on Thursday, when PSUN Secretary-General (SG) Mathew Haakuria said NHE’s unaudited financial statements is the reason why employees’ demands are not being met.

This comes after employees wanted a once-off payment of N.dollars 15 000 as the company is not in a position to offer salary increments.

“The board indicated that it will consider this payment only after NHE provides audited financial statements for the fiscal year 2021/22,” Haakuria said.

In response to the claims made, Nampa contacted NHE’s Acting Corporate Communication and Marketing Manager Tuafi Shafombabi, who said the looming strike will only do more harm than good to the institution.

“Should employees vote in favour of a strike, actions will bring dire financial straits for the organisation. NHE is not in a position to affect any salary increment at the moment,” she said.

In response to this, Haakuria said the NHE’s board refused to give a mandate to their management to engage with the union.

“For us we do not accept that. They need to come clean. They need to come out, engage PSUN, provide their reasons and convince us that the company does not have money,” he said.

Haakuria also made it clear the PSUN is willing to engage with NHE even before the industrial action kicks off to discuss matters further.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency