The Ministry of Labour has begun the public hearings on the national minimum wage, an exercise that aims to gather information on the subject.
Chairperson of the commission, Marius Kudumo opened the hearing earlier today at the ministry’s head office.
“We have decided to use different methods to acquire the information from the investigation that is being conducted. Public hearings are one of the methods being used, and on top of that written representations will also be invited with the deadline being 30 June,” Kudumo said.
Expert contributions will also be used for the minimum wage discussion during this process, coupled with other research methods.
Three early presentations were made in the morning session, looking at an over-encompassing view at the minimum wage for many manufacturing industries.
Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union representative, Michael Kangombe, said that a minimum wage will help to stabilise the post-depression economy workers in the labour market.
“Minimum wage is a minimum amount workers can receive under law, and what employers can pay. MANWU sees a disadvantage in this proposal of the minimum wage in that there will be a lack of enforcement to compel employers to adhere to the minimum wage law. And, that some employers will create unemployment with the reasoning that the minimum wage will be deemed unaffordable,” Kangombe said.
John Kwedhi of the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers Union presented an overview of the challenges facing long distance drivers and security guards.
Kwedhi said that truck drivers sometimes work on a commission based system. “This leads to people not having decent employment contracts – with trucks drivers, the more you drive, the more you are paid.”
He also links this in with the fishing industry for maritime based employees on the seas.
“No work-no pay practice is a widely used technique in the security industry.”
Kandondo Simon from the Namibian Independent Security Union shed more light on the working conditions of security guards.
Simon indicated that their organisation has seen the worst treatment that has been meted out in the security industry.
“Contracts can be negotiated on the minimum wage agreements, and then the employee will be fired and a new person will be hired. Secondly, the working environment is also not conducive where the employees can be fired if the supervisors do not like who you are,” Simon said.
