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Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - Web posted at 8:24:33 GMT Workers at Cadilu remain adrift in a sea of legal uncertainties LINDSAY DENTLINGER and MAGGI BARNARDTHE fate of more than 100 seagoing workers facing retrenchment from the Cadilu Fishing Company at Walvis Bay remains uncertain. |
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The resumption of a Labour Court case yesterday turned into a technical dispute over whether the court is the correct forum to handle the matter. The workers launched a court case in December over the alleged unfair alteration of their conditions of employment. The Judge granted them interim relief until yesterday. This meant the company had to re-employ the sea-going workers in terms of the court order. Most of the workers returned to sea in early January. Susan Vivier, acting on behalf of Cadilu Fishing Company, contended before Judge Kato van Niekerk yesterday that the court should not have granted the applicants the interim relief. The court order prevented Cadilu from retrenching them, hiring scab labour or from changing their conditions of employment. Vivier maintained that instead the District Labour Court should have been approached to deal with these matters. She argued that the Labour Court should only be approached when it would result in the dispute being finalised. Vivier said this was not the case in the matter at hand. She alleged that the Labour Commissioner's Office had not fully exhausted the dispute resolution procedure by not referring the matter to conciliation. In a letter to both parties in November, the Labour Commissioner's Office said it felt that appointing a conciliation board to resolve the matter would "not be feasible". Andrew Corbett, representing the Namibian Seamen and Allied Workers' Union (Nasawu) on behalf of the disgruntled workers, was however adamant that the Labour Act of 1992 was not restrictive in the type of disputes it could hear. He argued that the law had "very wide powers" to rule on a number of matters related to labour situations, not necessarily specifically mentioned in the Act. Corbett said the applicants had no choice but to approach the court in December to ensure the company complied with the law. He contended that at the time, the company was reneging on its recognition agreement with the union by unilaterally trying to alter the workers' conditions of employment. A ruling on the court's jurisdiction to hear the matter is expected next Wednesday. Paulus Hango of Nasawu confirmed to The Namibian yesterday that the affected workers were still at sea, except for the crew of two freezer trawlers. He said the company sent these two trawlers to sea before Christmas using scab labour, which was in contravention of the court order. "These trawlers will return to land within the next week or two, when the permanent crew will be employed again," said Paulus. According to him, the union has secured payment for these workers for the time they were waiting on land for the vessels to return. The dispute stems from a protracted battle over pay increases that started last May. The company was not prepared to meet Nasawu's demands of a 6,5 per cent hike, offering 5,8 per cent instead. With that dispute still not settled, the company stopped production and recalled all its vessels to port due to financial difficulties which necessitated restructuring. This meant all workers had to re-apply for their positions or opt for retrenchment. |
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