Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Erastus Uutoni, has appealed to the striking employees of the Namibia Housing Enterprise (NHE) to resume work to avoid the NHE ship from sinking.
Uutoni said this to the striking employees on Friday as they handed over their petition outside the ministry to NHE’s Chief Executive Officer, Gisbertus Mukulu, and other ministry employees.
The employees asked Uutoni to intervene on their behalf and ask the NHE management and board of directors to engage in dialogue with them to resolve the industrial action.
Uutoni said unemployment in Namibia is high and he does not want the NHE ship sinking as it would add to the number of unemployed people in the country.
“Let us handle our ship well together so that we do not sink because if we are here outside and there is no income the NHE ship will sink and no one is going to survive. NHE is our baby, they are our employees, so let us all work together,” Uutoni said.
The minister said he will hand over the petition to the newly appointed board of directors and the CEO to analyse.
Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN) Secretary General, Matheus Haakuria, said NHE does not want to engage in dialogue with the union and employees will not return to work until they receive a letter from the NHE management and board for a negotiation meeting.
“We are not moving one inch. We are going to wait until we see a letter saying ‘Come this day, let’s start negotiating’ from the NHE management and board,” he stressed.
In the petition read by Kaakuria, the employees said NHE has been threatening workers with no work, no pay principles and retrenchment.
“There will be no retrenchment at NHE. If this exercise ought to start, it will be first the removal of the current chief executive officer and his management,” he said.
Mukulu on Tuesday called on the striking employees to return to work as salary increments are not possible due to the challenging economic climate.
The employees have been on strike since 24 February.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
