The Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN) says it is disappointed by the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) board members and management who have turned down a request of a once-off payment in lieu by employees.
The union’s Secretary General (SG) Matheus Haakuria at a press conference here Thursday said NHE was bargaining in a strange way as its (NHE) Management are just messengers.
“The NHE management has no input in these negotiations as they do not have the mandate to make a decision or to engage meaningfully on anything. They do not have inputs during negotiations,” Haakuria said.
NHE employees voted to embark on a strike in the wake of a salary dispute with the housing parastatal after it had failed to give the employees a once-off payment it had agreed to.
The parastatal then threatened to invoke a no-work, no-pay rule during the strike which 90 per cent of employees voted in favour of on Friday.
Haakuria said this makes it difficult for decisions to be explained to the workers as the board has refused to meet and engage the union in any form, noting that the board has indicated that it will only consider the demands of the workers when the financial situation of the parastatal improves, a situation which does not have a timeline.
“We asked them when will the financial situation improve so that we submit our demands when that time comes. Up to now, they (the board) have not responded, because they do not want to meet the union,” the SG added.
Haakuria warned the board to stop threatening workers with a no-work-no-pay, saying they have not reached the stage of agreeing on the strike rules as they believe that negotiations can still avert the strike.
“They are negotiating in bad faith; they are even threatening workers with retrenchment. The workers are engaging with the board and management with a sword hanging over their heads,” he said.
Haakuria said the board chairperson Sam Shivute has misled the nation with his utterances as no one requested a salary increment by the workers.
Efforts to get comments from the NHE Board chairperson proved fruitless as his phone went unanswered.
(NAMPA)
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
