Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) has announced that it will reduce employee salaries and working hours in efforts to ensure the company’s sustainability.
The salaries of employees in job grades A1-F1 will be reduced for a period not exceeding three months as from August 2021, with basic salaries to be reduced by 10, 15, 20 and 25 per cent depending on the employee’s job grade.
Working hours will be reduced by one hour for employees in job grades A to C; by 90 minutes for employees in job grade D and by two hours for employees in the E and F bands.
NWR Managing Director Dr Matthias Ngwangwama in a media statement on Friday said the decision was not an easy one to take as they had hoped that their previous measures and a possible uptick in travel during the high season would improve the situation, but this was not the case.
“In the current circumstances where cases are rapidly increasing and affecting Namibia as a travel destination, we do not foresee a marked improvement anytime soon. The reduction in hours and basic salaries is geared towards giving us some leeway to continue operating under these challenging times,” he said.
In previous attempts to safeguard its operations, NWR cut the basic salaries of its board, managing director and management with the Patterson E-grading by 25 per cent in September last year. It also suspended salary increments for the 2019/20 financial year and suspended normal overtime, Sunday and public holiday payments, as well as other allowances and benefits, from 27 March 2020.
According to the Bank of Namibia the tourism sector was among of the sectors that remained weak during the first four months of 2021.
Similarly, the quarterly bulletin by the central bank for June 2021 also indicated a decrease in the number of international and regional airport arrivals during the first quarter of 2021, stating that activity in the tourism sector remained subdued, registering a decline of 79.2 per cent year-on-year.
It further stated that the year-on-year decline in arrivals was largely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely affected the sector.
Source: Namibia Press Agency
