BoN wants to block strikes

By: TILENI MONGUDHI

THE central bank of Namibia received a blow in its efforts to avoid a strike, after the Ministry of Labour rejected a proposal to declare some of its business units essential services.

Essential services workers are not allowed to strike.
 Sources told The Namibian that the Bank of Namibia requested essential services status in November last year.
 The bank wanted the Payment Systems Operations, Currency and Banking Operations, Protection Services Operations, Network Services Operations and the Treasury Back Office Operations to be declared essential.
 BoN sources said those departments constitute about 60% of the bank’s staff.
 Disgruntled BoN employees accused the management of applying for essential services status to keep the staff from striking. Ministry of Labour spokesperson Paulus Ashipala yesterday said that Labour Minister Doreen Sioka rejected the application. Ashipala said that after recommendations were forwarded to the minister by the Labour Advisory Council through the Essential Services Committee, the Minister last month decided not to declare the said services essential.
As part of its application to the labour ministry the central bank stated that it wanted the essential services status because the interruption of these services will result in economic loss and directly or indirectly impact on the health and safety of the population.
 Sioka found that the interruption of the operations would have no direct impact on the whole or part of the health and safety of the population.
Unhappy employees said that if the labour ministry had approved the proposal only staff who are not deemed as ‘professionals’ like secretaries and cleaners would be allowed to strike.
For most of yesterday, the BoN management was locked in talks with the Namibia Financial Institutions Union (Nafinu) to find a solution after the two parties failed to agree on ground rules for the strike.
By start of business yesterday the two parties were deadlocked and could not agree to the terms of the strike because the union wanted to give 48 hours notice before the strike, while the bank’s management insisted on 72 hours notice.
 The bank’s move to get its some of its business units declared essential services is also one of the reasons said to have caused the stalemate.
The two parties have been in talks, since last year, regarding salary increments.  Workers were demanding a 12% salary increase for workers who fall below the management level, while management is only willing to offer an 8 per cent across-the-board increase. Part of the reason workers are demanding for a large increase is because those who fall below management pay levels cannot afford housing.
 After the workers could not convince management to agree to some sort of improved housing subsidy they opted to ask for higher wages so they could afford homes.
BoN workers last had a salary increase in 2011 but could not reach common ground with Nafinu on this round of salary negotiations which started early last year.

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